The Other Side
by Oxnate
Summary: Just in time for Halloween. YAHF. Xander thought his outfit would be ironic. But it stopped being funny when he got stuck. Now he gets to see the world from the other side. -Complete
1. Chapter 1

The Other Side

By Oxnate

Disclaimer: Do not own Buffy or Underworld. My title this time comes from a Bruno Mars song – The Other Side. To find out why, you can google the lyrics (You go 'bout your day baby, While I hide from the sun). Do not own the song either.

Just go ahead and accept the retcon that the Underworld series came out sometime before the Halloween episode.

YAHF. Xander thought his outfit would be ironic. But it stopped being funny when he got stuck. Now he gets to see the world from the other side.

* * *

Chapter 1.

Xander regained control of his body as the Ag round smashed the statue of Janus. He had been in the library when Giles and Willow had figured out it had been Ethan that had cast the spell and had easily outraced Giles' aging Citroen here. And the shopkeeper had been easily... encouraged to tell him how to end the spell.

And now Xander was back in control of his own body. Except that he felt weird. And the gun in his hand still felt very real. "What's wrong? Why is this gun still real?" he demanded. His eyes turned ice-blue and he felt his fangs elongate. "I'm still a fucking vampire. You had better change me back!" he warned. He had to enunciate carefully with his fangs out.

He heard the front door open and turned towards the sound. Ethan took the opportunity to try to escape. Xander stopped him by the simple expedient of stomping on a leg, snapping it. That that was probably not something the old Xander would have done flashed through his mind briefly, but he squashed it. Introspection could wait. He raised his gun and waited until the intruder followed Ethan's scream.

Giles came through the curtain wielding a 2X4, Xander let his gun drop.

"Xander? Or Alexander?" Giles asked mentioning the name the Death Dealer had given them.

"It's me, Giles. I broke the statue, like he said, to end the spell. I'm back in control, but I'm pretty sure I'm still a vampire." Xander explained.

"Ethan Rayne." Giles said. "I might have known. This stunt stinks of you."

"Hello, Ripper. Still playing mild mannered watcher, are you?" Rayne smirked.

"How do we break the spell on Xander?" Giles growled threateningly.

"That wasn't my doing." Ethan insisted. "Go outside and check for yourself. The spell should be ended."

"I don't believe you." Xander growled and raised a foot to stomp on Ethan's broken leg again.

"Xander!" Giles stopped him. "I'm afraid he's probably telling the truth. Willow's spirit disappeared not long before I arrived here, hopefully back to her own body. Also, honesty always has been one of his few redeeming qualities."

"The truth tends to create more conflict than lying does." Ethan admitted. "Lying is for those who want the easy way out."

"I'm about to give you the easy way out." Xander warned, his eyes flashing blue again.

"Xander, please let me handle this." Giles said calmly. "You don't need to be here for this."

"Giles, I have the memories of a vampire who fought a war against werewolves for 350 years. I can handle anything you're going to do to him. In fact, I'll probably do worse once you're done." Xander turned to Ethan, "So, what's it going to be? Do you want to confess to the nice watcher-man? Or would you like me to show you what a Death Dealer can do to a mere human?"

Ethan went very pale at that. "Rupert! I swear, the spells were on the costumes and it was all linked through the statue. It would have petered out in another hour, but breaking the statue should have returned everything to normal. Unless..." he noted the damage to Xander's clothing. "Did you drink any blood?"

Xander looked a little sheepish.

"Xander!" Giles admonished.

"Not from people. Well, not directly. I was injured, so I broke into the hospital and stole a couple bags." Xander explained.

Ethan nodded eagerly now that the conversation was going in a not-Ethan's-fault direction. "It could have been your vampire healing taking over your body. Or it could just be that Janus was angry at you for breaking his statue and decided to leave you like that."

"How do I change it back?" Xander demanded.

"I really don't know." Ethan said sadly. He really wished he did know so he could get out of this. As it was, he had a feeling only Ripper's presence was keeping him alive and in one piece for now. "That's really more Ripper's area than mine." he tried to pass the buck.

"I don't know either, Xander. Yet." he placed a hand on his shoulder. "But please put him down."

Xander was surprised to find that sometime during the interrogation, he'd stopped glaring down at Ethan and had instead picked him up easily and pressed him against the wall. He let go.

Ethan didn't fall far and tried to take all of his weight on his good leg, but couldn't help let out a hiss when his broken leg hit the ground rather hard on its own.

"Come on, Ethan. "I'll drive you to Hospital." Giles threw Ethan's arm over his shoulder. "We'll work on fixing this later. I should warn you, if you try to escape, I'll send Xander after you."

Ethan eagerly agreed that he wouldn't leave town until Xander was fixed.

"Xander, I suggest you lay low for the day and meet us in the library after sundown. I shall explain things to Buffy before then so she doesn't try to... um, Slay you." Giles said as the two Englishmen left.

* * *

Xander was pleased (and also a little worried) to find out that an Underworld type vampire didn't need an invitation to enter a house. Or at least not his own. He'd have to test that on another house. He grabbed a bag, stuffed it with clothes, toiletries, and the small stash of money he'd been saving for a road trip after graduation. He also grabbed a cross out of habit then dropped it quickly. He tested it several more times before he was sure that, yes, crosses did _not_ burn him. Which was good. Proof that he wasn't a demon would be handy for not getting staked.

Slipping silently back out the window he'd come in, he was pretty sure his parents would never even know he'd been home. He wondered for a second how long it would be before he was reported missing, if ever.

Xander made his way across Sunnydale at night and he was surprised at the detail he could make out in his new form. It was like someone had turned the starlight way up, it was clear as day out even though there was a new moon tonight. Or clearer, since daylight would probably be fatal to him from now on. He mentally went over the ways he'd seen vampires die in the Underworld movie. Sunlight, for sure. Beheading for sure. Massive trauma from gunshots, probably; though it looked like as long as he could find protection from the sun and some blood, he could heal from most wounds. Still, it wouldn't do to count on that and he didn't want to be experimented on to find the outer limit of what could be healed. ...Maybe he'd turn Cordy and let Buffy experiment on her? He grinned at the thought.

"Kitten's lost his way." a voice mewed out of the darkness.

Xander spun to face a person he hadn't even heard approach. Drusilla. He instinctively reached for his gun, then stopped. This breed of vampire was more resilient to bullets than he was. And he hadn't thought to pack a stake.

"Gone through the looking glass, he has. Like Alice. Trying to find his way home. But you can't go home." Dru said. "Never to see the sun again. Come with me Kitten. Let me show you the freedom the darkness brings."

Xander set down his bag, opened it, pulled out the cross, and showed it to her. Dru went to game face, hissed, and jumped backwards. Xander replaced the cross in his bag and stood back up. He showed her his unharmed hand. "I'm not like you. And I don't want to see you again." Once she had run off, he turned back the way he had come.

* * *

He stepped up to the door, hardly believing he was there again. He raised his hand and knocked. A few seconds later, it opened. "Hi Angel. Would you mind if I crashed here for the day? Kinda got myself turned into a vampire."

* * *

A/N: Yes, there really was a new moon on Halloween 1997. I found that out when I was looking up the Sunrise times for the next chapter.

Please review.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thank you to Eric for pointing out that silver is Ag, not Hg. Hg is mercury, I must have been thinking about those liquid silver rounds there.

A/N: A couple people reviewed to ask what generation Xander was in the Underworld lineage. Apparently, the further from Marcus you were, the weaker you were – _with no hope of moving up_. Except that I don't buy that. Perhaps that was accepted in Underworld, but I didn't see anyone doing much training. I will accept that being closer to the source gave those an initial boost and possibly a slightly higher threshold. If no one in the world trained, Usain Bolt might still be the fastest man in the world. But training can overcome natural ability if natural ability isn't trained.

As a biological organism, Xander can work and train to get both faster and stronger than when he was turned. He can also gain knowledge of combat techniques, tactics, and strategy to become a better fighter. – I hope that clarifies Xander's potential a bit.

* * *

Chapter 2.

"Your heart is still beating." Angel observed after he stood aside for Xander to enter. "Though you do smell different."

Xander sniffed. "And you smell like Buffy." he said.

Angel looked uncomfortable and quickly changed the subject. "You said you were a vampire. How is it your heart is still beating?"

"Yeah, I'm not like the Sunnydale vamps. More of an immortal that needs blood to survive than demon animated corpse. Here, I'll show you." he dug out his cross. Angel hissed and backed away from it, going into game face. Xander put it back on the top of his bag and zipped it back up. Now, at least, he knew Angel wasn't going to go through his stuff. "Speaking of blood, I don't suppose you have any? It's been a long night."

Angel went to a mini-fridge and pulled out a small, white plastic container. "Here. It's pig's blood."

Xander opened it and hesitated only a moment. It certainly didn't look very appetizing, but the smell was intoxicating. He drank and it was quickly gone. Not quite the ambrosia taste that he remembered the bags of human blood had, but still it was better than chocolate. Heck, it was better than Twinkies! Xander wondered if he could still eat normal food.

"So that's what you look like?" Angel asked. "Just the eyes and the fangs?"

"Yeah. Should be anyway. Hadn't thought to look in a mirror. I don't su- Never mind." Xander dismissed the idea of asking the vampire if he had a mirror.

"Will you show up?" Angel wondered.

"Should. I'm not mystical like you are. I mean, the Halloween spell made me like this. But in the Underworld universe, their vamps were biological."

"Underworld?" Angel asked.

"It's a movie about Vampires and Werewolves, called Lycans. Pretty popular."

"I don't usually watch many vampire movies." Angel admitted.

"No, I suppose not." Xander nodded. "But if you want to know about me, I suggest renting the movie. Because explaining it would take too long."

"Vampire speed and strength though?" Angel wondered.

"Supposedly." Xander said. "Haven't had a chance to test it though."

"Well, let's spar and find out. It's a long time until sunrise." Angel offered. "Speaking of which, does sunlight affect you?"

"According to the movies, very much so." Xander said.

"Okay, don't forget that Daylight Saving Time just ended. Sunrise is at 6:11. Half the fledgelings in the country don't survive their first Daylight Saving transition. And a lot more die over the summer with the long days and short nights." Angel warned.

"Thanks for the tip." Xander was surprised at how friendly and downright helpful Angel was being. Then again, maybe it was the mirrored circumstances. Human souls trapped in the darkness.

An arm-wrestling match showed that Xander wasn't quite a match for Angel, but close. The fact that he was almost as strong as an acknowledged Master Vampire was enough for him. Sparring, he found out he was actually quite a bit faster than the other vamp. He also found that he had fighting skills that he didn't have that morning. Not all the time, unfortunately. It was very hit and miss, but it seemed like the skills were there so long as he didn't think about it. When he tried to do the moves, he just tripped over his own feet. He didn't practice with his guns. Mostly because he wanted to save the high Ag rounds for if/when a werewolf showed up in Sunnydale. He figured it was only a matter of time.

"Alright." Angel called a halt to their sparring. "I think you're good enough. Room to improve, but enough skill if you want to patrol with me tonight. You have any stakes?"

"Forgot 'em" Xander confessed. Angel shot him a look. Xander glared back. "What? I just got turned into a vampire! Forgive me for forgetting the stupid stakes!"

Angel looked slightly abashed. "Sorry. You're handling this so well, I forgot you just got turned."

"Well, I have a lot of memories helping me. But I'm also running on the assumption that this is all a bad dream that I'll wake from shortly. That helps keep down the 'screaming in terror' urges." Xander said half-sarcastically.

* * *

"So, for good pig's blood, Charlie is the guy to talk to at the butcher's shop. Just make sure you go early in the night and don't be surprised to see other vamps buying blood... keeps them off the Slayer's radar. And as long as they're buying pig's blood, that means they aren't killing anyone, so there's an informal truce around the butcher's shop. Buffy doesn't patrol there until after it's closed." Angel took a breath. "If you really need some human blood. The hospital gets their monthly supply of blood on Wednesday."

"Which Wednesday?" Xander asked.

"_Every_ Wednesday. They get enough for a month each week since only one of every four deliveries makes it to the hospital." Angel explained. "I try to stop by at least one Wednesday per month to make sure one gets through."

Xander swallowed hearing how easy it would be to get human blood. The memory of how good human blood tasted wasn't even technically his own memory, and yet he could almost taste it just thinking about it. He decided it would be a good time to change the subject. "Also, I need some bullets. 9mm."

"You empty?" Angel asked.

"No. But these are high Ag rounds." Xander explained, patting his guns. "Silver bullets, meant for werewolves. I'd like to save them for that, since they would be expensive to replace."

"Pauly at the gun range won't card you if you're a demon. But he charges more then to forge the paperwork. If you look human and have the ID to do things legally, you can get normal prices. I'll buy a couple boxes for you tomorrow night and you can pay me back." Angel offered.

"Thanks. I guess I should get a good fake ID now too." Xander said. "And what do you call it when the sun goes down? Is it evening or morning?"

"Easier and cheaper if you don't get a fake. Just call your folks every so often to let 'em know you're still alive." Angel advised. "And sunset is our morning. Morning, midnight, and evening. And lucky you to get turned just before winter. Long nights and short days make it easier to adjust."

"Okay, what about school?"

Angel shrugged. "G-E-D. Start studying now and you'll probably graduate before your friends."

"Man, this sucks." Xander groused.

"It really does." Angel agreed as they walked. "But there are upsides."

"Such as?"

They then spotted three vampires at the other end of the cemetery.

"Such as getting to be the closest thing to a super-hero you're ever going to get." Angel said. "Now show me what you got." With that, Angel shoved him into a 3-on-1 fight.

Xander ducked the first punch easily and caught the low kick the other vamp had thrown too. He was about to twist the ankle and cripple his opponent when he was hit from behind and thrown into a headstone. He'd lost sight of the third vampire as his blood on the tombstone now attested. With his clock rung, the demons surrounded him and pounded on him for half a minute until Angel finally jumped in and started beating on one of the vamps. Xander used the distraction to stake one of the other two. Then Angel threw his vamp back at Xander and Xander took back all the nice things he had been thinking about the souled demon. At 2-on-1, though Xander did much better. He was still backed into a corner, which made it hard to dodge the blows. He was forced to match strength with strength and was surprised to find out that he won that battle against these minions. Unfortunately, every time he got a shot in on one, the other would land a shot on him. Eventually, he staked another one. And at 1-on-1, Xander easily staked the last of them despite how sore he was.

Angel gave him a slow applause. CLAP... CLAP... CLAP. "Not bad, not bad."

Xander just scowled and held his tongue – as he was still hoping for some favors in the near future – when he really wanted to tell him where to stick his stake. "Thanks for the backup." he said with as much sarcasm as he could muster.

"Well, I had to look out for you. And 3-on-1 is on the low end of what you can expect around here. I stepped in before they dusted you. Besides, you fought a lot better in my apartment than you did just now." Angel said. "But 3-on-1 seems to be your limit for now. So let's see if we can find you more of those until you can take them easy, then we'll move up."

Xander quickly decided he didn't like Angel's 'throw them to the wolves' training method. Vengeance would be his. Eventually.

* * *

Just a cup of blood from a thermos Angel was carrying was enough to return Xander to full strength and after a few minutes, all his aches and pains were gone. "Wow. That was awesome."

"Vampire healing. Fast without blood, but fresh blood _really_ speeds it up. _Really, really_, in your case. That should have taken 20 minutes for you to heal all the way, not 2." Angel said.

Xander could only shrug.

The next group they encountered was only two vamps. Xander let them get close before he struck. He staked one before either could make a move and then had a quick fight with the other.

"See? You're learning." Angel gave a frankly evil smile to his student.

The group after that was four strong and he was hoping that Angel would take one, but it looked like Angel wanted him to dust one and make it a 3-on-1 fight. So he did. The fight took a long time, but Xander got hit a lot less this time. He kept his distance, used his speed, and used headstones and the other vamps to get in the way of their buddies. And most importantly, he maintained an awareness of his surroundings this time and didn't let himself get backed into a corner. And once he got one of them, the other two fell fairly easily.

However, going against the group of seven later was definitely beyond his abilities. And he got a taste of his own stake for his troubles before Angel crashed into the party and started dusting them. Xander was able to get to his feet then and get one in the back, even with a hole in his gut. And the distraction of him still being dangerous was all Angel needed to clean up the rest of the crew.

"Blood." Xander begged as the dust settled and he fell to his knees. With the first cup of blood, he could feel the hole in his gut closing up. However, the next two cups didn't seem to do much of anything. Perhaps just replacing the blood already lost. After that, Angel was out of blood and the wound was serious enough that it took a good half an hour before he felt 100%, even with his accelerated healing. So they just sat and waited for him to heal.

"Well, maybe that was a bit much for your first night." Angel admitted.

Xander just ground his teeth and reminded himself of the favors Angel was going to be doing for him that day and the next night.

* * *

Back at Angel's apartment, there was only one bed. Xander knew there was no way he was sleeping there. He certainly wasn't sharing with another guy and Buffy would probably stake him if he kicked Angel out of his own bed. Whether or not he might survive that was not the point. Luckily, Angel had an old Army cot for him to sleep on. It was more comfortable than Xander would have thought. After an awkward exchange of 'goodnight's, both vampires fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3.

The first thing they did the next morning was have Angel visit Pauly at the gun range and get a couple boxes of ammo for Xander. Xander fed bullets into the already emptied magazines as they walked. It felt good to be properly armed with guns he could afford to shoot again. That was one downside about the Underworld vamps, they were very rich and were used to being able to buy anything they needed. Unfortunately, none of that money had come through.

As he and Angel entered the library, he wondered how much Giles had told his friends. When Willow ran out, crying, at the sight of him; he figured it was the whole shebang.

"So, you're a vampire now? But with a soul?" Buffy sounded equal parts angry, hopeful, and cautious.

"I'm still completely me. There's nothing demonic about the type of vamp I am." Xander hoped he was assuring her. "Here, I'll prove it." He reached into his bag and pulled out the cross. He came up to see that Buffy had pulled a stake.

"You moved kinda fast." Angel explained his girlfriend's reaction.

"See? Not burning. Feel free to test it on Angel to see if it still works." Xander got a measure of revenge for the other night.

Angel snarled. "Or not."

"Also, I have a heartbeat and a reflection. Oh, and let me show you my game face." he showed her his normal teeth with no fangs, then vamped out, opening his mouth again to show her his fangs.

"That's it?" Buffy was almost disapointed. It wasn't much compared to 'her' vamps.

"That's it. You should really watch Underworld. That should tell you what you need to know about the type of Vampire I am." Xander advised.

"Sorry, Giles just told us a few minutes ago." Buffy said. "But we'll watch it tonight if we can."

Xander nodded. "I'd like to try an experiment too. I could enter my own house and Angel's place without an invitation. I'd like to try your house tonight if I can."

Buffy wasn't sure if any verbal response could be construed as permission, so she just nodded instead. Then she wrapped her friend up in a hug.

"Ughh... Buffy." Xander choked out, "I still need to breathe."

"Sorry." Buffy wiped away her tears.

"It's okay. I'm still me. Still alive. I just have a new diet and a bit of an allergy to sunlight." Xander said.

"Hemovore." Giles put in. At a look from the kids he went on. "An animal that ingests blood as the main part of its diet, such as leeches or mosquitoes. Hemovore. Xander is no different than, say, a vampire bat now."

"Except that I can't fly." Xander joked. "Climb fast and fall from taller buildings than we have in Sunnydale without injury, yes. Fly, no. Also I should tell you that the coven explicitly forbids feeding directly from humans. All the blood they drink is donated or animal blood if they can't get that."

Just when Xander had finished explaining everything, a puffy-eyed Willow returned and Xander had to explain everything all over again.

* * *

It turned out that Xander did not need an invitation to enter the Summers' house. Not that he thought he would. And the three teens settled down to watch an Underworld movie marathon.

"So, you went as a Death Dealer?" Willow asked. "A specific one?"

"No. Not a specific one. Lucky, too. Since the hero was Selene. I could have been stuck in her body." he gave a mock shiver.

"Hey! There's nothing wrong with being a girl!" Willow took offense.

"No but if I got changed into a girl AND a vampire? I don't think my mind could take it. Or maybe she would have her mind and I would just be gone." Xander trailed off.

"Don't even joke about that Xander." Willow warned.

"Yeah. I could probably take her in hand to hand, but not with those guns of hers. She's a way better shot than Darla was." Buffy agreed.

Willow elbowed her in the side.

"Oh yeah." Buffy realized, "Also, we'd really miss you."

"Thaaanks. Makes me feel special." Xander said sarcastically.

Buffy shook her head. "No. I mean it. We-"

"I know, Buff. You can't watch an action movie nowadays without analyzing it and making sure you can take everyone in it. Just like I can't watch it without noticing huge, gaping plot-holes. For example, when your regent is accused of treason, you don't send _him_ or his team to collect evidence of his treason." Xander shook his head. He heard Willow try to stifle a yawn. He looked up at the clock to see that it was after Midnight. "It's getting late. I should let you guys get to bed. Are you staying here, Will? Or do you want me to walk you home?"

"Walk me home." Willow requested. Once they were out of the house, she asked, "Was that what it was like, in the movie? Did all that really happen?"

"I don't know the details." Xander admitted. "Alexander was part of the North American coven. Across the pond from where all that happened. But Amelia never came back from her trip to Europe and we heard rumors that the entire council was destroyed with all the elders. I can tell you that Lucian didn't die. He became a hybrid as well and came to America. Wreaked bloody vengeance on the American vampires. Supposedly he wanted a peace treaty but Alexander died in the war before that happened."

They walked in silence for a bit until Willow was sure they were out of Slayer hearing range. "I know Buffy doesn't want to think about it, but I know you. Promise me you'll be careful when you hunt?"

"You know I will." Xander assured her, not surprised at all that she knew what he was already doing. "Angel's teaching me and backing me up. And even if I do get injured, a little blood fixes me up straight away."

Willow glared at him. "And how would you know that, mister?"

"Angel's training methods are a little... harsh." Xander admitted, not hesitating to throw the other vamp under a bus. Literally, if possible. "But I got way better just in one night."

Willow softened against him. "Just be careful. I don't know if I could handle losing you."

_I don't want to lose me either,_ Xander thought to himself.

* * *

After a lunch of microwaved pig's blood with Angel it was time to patrol again. "How do you afford your place and enough blood to stay healthy?" Xander wondered.

"I mug the others before I dust them. Loners if I can find them, or the last one of a group otherwise. They tend to mug their victims so they always have plenty of cash on them unless they just rose. And it just goes up in dust when you stake them. We can practice that tonight if you want. Split everything 50/50?"

"Sure." Xander said.

* * *

Mugging vamps was a lot harder than it sounded, he was faster than they were, but even the minions who went around in game face tended to be almost as strong as him. And getting frustrated at not being able to subdue his opponent; Xander, in frustration, took out his gun and shot the demon. Who fell bonelessly to the ground.

"Hey!" the vampire yelled. "Guns aren't supposed to be able to hurt me." he flailed his arms.

"Looks like you caught his spine." Angel observed. "Think you can do that every time?"

"I could do that at every time at three times that range. And get easy headshots even past that." Xander boasted truthfully as he took a number of wallets from the vamp. The demon futilely tried to bite him. "Hey! Do you want us to leave you for the sun to burn or do you want us to give you a nice, merciful staking?"

"I think I'll wait for the sun." the vamp said.

Xander staked him anyway. "Too bad."

* * *

By the end of the night, they were each $5,000 richer.

"Wow, that's quite a haul." Xander said.

Angel agreed. "You're not kidding. Usually, I only get one or two thousand. Together we were able to take some bigger groups."

"You ever do this with Buffy?" Xander asked.

"No. She'd think it was crass, I'm sure." Angel said.

Xander shrugged. "Probably. Until she brought home five grand in cash. Nothing buys bygones quicker than cash."

Angel thought about it for a moment. "Maybe. We could try this with her sometime. But not until after she's gotten over the shock of you being a vampire."

Xander could live with that.

* * *

A/N: "Nothing buys bygones quicker than cash." - from Firefly. Gotta have one reference in there.

Also, I know Xander contradicts Underworld Evolution, where we see Lucian dead. But he had already injected himself with Michael's blood and we saw Raze drop Amelia's blood next to him. He should have been immune to the silver nitrate rounds he was hit with after that. I'm taking the original movie as canon and the rest as 'suggestions' since they often contradict each other. For now, just going with, 'they couldn't get the actor to sign on for the second movie'.

And a little throw-away comment about turning Cordy has taken on a life of it's own in the reviews (on TTH), so now I have to see if I can find a reasonably realistic scenario where she would accept being turned.

Till next time,

Happy Halloween everyone.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4.

As the week progressed, Xander trained with Buffy and Angel, both separately and together, as well as spent some time at the shooting range, practicing the skills he'd been granted on Halloween. And across the board, his teachers were unanimous... he was getting worse. He was still way better than he'd been before being turned, especially in terms of physical abilities. His strength and speed weren't decreasing but his skills were becoming a shadow of what they were the first few nights after Halloween.

"Damn it! I could do this perfectly two days ago." Xander swore as he tried a move and Buffy easily defended it.

Buffy was actually okay with Xander's regression, he had proven to to be both faster and better than her the first time they sparred and it had frankly scared her. Her new enthusiasm for training since being beaten was, in turn, scaring her watcher.

"Buffy, let him land the throw." Angel admonished from the sidelines. As much as he didn't like Harris, the thought of having backup all night long actually sounded like a good idea. Together, they could really clean up this town. Just so long as he could get him into his own place soonest 'cause the whole roommates thing was wearing thin fast. But to live on his own, Harris would have to be able to defend himself, and that ability seemed to be dribbling out his ears. He knew part of it was simply that Buffy didn't like to lose and had redoubled her own training during the day to match the peak of Xander's abilities. But part of it was a real loss of skills.

"What's going on, Ethan?" Giles asked his old friend, now in a cast and crutches.

Ethan shrugged. "The spell was designed to end a week ago. The training you're doing now will probably help you keep these skills. Though keeping up the training will probably allow you to restore the skills in weeks instead of months. Any other skills will likely fall back to somewhere around your baseline. You have the knowledge, that was designed to stay, but you need the muscle memory." He and Rupert were spending most of their days researching ways to undo the spell, though both were becoming more and more convinced that it just wasn't possible. Ethan was more than a little worried about what would happen to him when Xander found out. He was also relieved to see Ripper's Slayer defeat the vampire. She didn't like him, but she was designed to protect humans from vampires, so he was reasonably sure she would protect him when the time came to deliver the bad news.

"Goody. More training." Xander said sarcastically.

"But not tonight. Tonight you have to come to the Bronze." Buffy insisted. "My friend Ford – Billy Fordham – just transferred in from LA. I want you two to meet him."

Xander shrugged. "Sure. I'll stop by Willow's and walk her to the club."

* * *

The Bronze was very different as a vampire. Too loud, too bright, too many smells. Xander couldn't stand it for more than a minute before he had to step outside for some fresh air.

"Not much fun, is it?" Angel asked.

Xander shook his head, half to clear it and half in answer.

"Yeah, I try to spend as little time in there as possible. I always wonder how Buffy stands it if her senses are anything like ours." Angel said.

"Xander, are you- Angel!" Buffy came out after him, with Willow and Ford trailing after. She raced to meet her boyfriend.

"No, I'm not Angel." Xander said sarcastically to the couple who weren't even listening.

"You okay, man?" Ford asked as Buffy and Angel kissed.

"Uh... Migraine." Xander covered. "The loud noise and the lights sometimes aggravates it, sometimes not."

"I hear ya." Ford nodded sympathetically. "Have you gotten it checked out? To make sure it's only migraines and not... something else?"

"Like what?" Xander asked.

"Well, anything. But migraines can be an indicator for other problems in the brain." Ford advised, not looking at Xander.

"Well, no. I mean, yes, I was checked out. Nothing wrong that they could find." Xander lied, eying the way Ford was looking at Buffy and Angel.

"What's their story?" Ford asked.

"Ever read Romeo and Juliet?" Xander snarked.

"Their families don't approve?" Ford wondered. That was pretty odd in this day and age.

"I was going to go with doomed, but you could probably say that." Xander agreed.

"I heard that Harris." Angel broke the kiss so Buffy could breathe.

"Heard what?" Buffy hadn't been paying attention.

A noise came from around the corner of the alley. Xander and Angel turned towards it. "A cat. Down in the alley." Xander pointed. "You should probably go rescue it, Buff."

She left and Angel followed her. Xander and Willow stopped Ford from following. "She's good with cats." Xander explained.

A few seconds later a very distressed woman ran past the kids. The sounds of fighting emanated from the alley. Buffy and Angel reemerged around the corner still dusting themselves off.

"Big cat. Got away." Buffy lied.

"So, it had nothing to do with vampires?" Ford asked perfectly seriously.

"Say what?" Buffy was floored.

"What do you think you know about Vampires?" Xander said threateningly.

"They attacked my high school and Buffy saved us." Ford said evenly, then mouthed the word 'Slayer' at her. Her reaction was exactly what he'd wanted, he broke into a big grin. "I've been trying to find the right way to tell her that I knew since I got in."

Xander closed his eyes and turned away as he felt his fangs emerge. He was getting upset and was vamping out because of it. He had to calm himself down. The conversation went on without him.

"You know about vampires, and yet you came to Sunnydale?" Angel asked incredulously. Something didn't add up here.

"Hey. That's a good point." Willow said.

"I figured I'd be safe enough with Buffy." Ford shrugged off their concerns.

* * *

Once Ford was gone, the gang made sure Xander was okay.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Xander assured them turning around. His eyes still ice-blue and fangs still elongated. "Need to work on my anger management apparently. Not exactly fooling anyone into believing he didn't upset me."

Willow gave a little "eep." on seeing Xander 'vamp out' for the first time but quickly ran in and hugged her friend.

A quick hug softened in seconds, the anger he had been struggling to get under control for a minute on his own. "Thanks, Will." he returned her hug softly, making sure not to hurt her. After the hug broke, the group started walking. "So, Buffy's best friend is in the know and comes to Sunnyhell anyway."

"Guys. I've known Ford my whole life." Buffy assured her friends.

"Then you won't mind if we verify his story?" Xander prodded. "Nothing invasive, just a simple fact check."

Buffy sighed. "You're wasting your time. But fine, knock yourself out."

"Just a quick search, Wills?" Xander requested.

Willow eagerly agreed. A chance to do an internet search on a fishy guy was her idea of a good time. Especially since Buffy had okay'd it.

* * *

"'I think I shall eat you,' the lion said to the mouse." Drusilla purred at the boy she had found. His mind was so twisted and delicious. It reminded her of her own insanity.

Ford started. He hadn't expected it to be so easy to find a vampire, but apparently, in Sunnydale, they came to you. "I can help you though. I want to be like you. Turn me, and I can give you the Slayer." he promised.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. But you won't be you if I turn you. You will be me. And there is already me enough to go around." Drusilla stepped forward and laid her hand on his forehead, it was hot with sickness. "But the stars sing to me. They say the blue-eyed vampire can leave you as you when you turn." _And bring the new vampire one step closer to her,_ she left out. "Get him to turn you." she turned to leave.

"How? How do I find him?" Ford asked.

"He is friends with the Slayer." Dru replied over her shoulder. "And try not to get eaten in the mean time, little mouse." She sent her Kitten his first mouse to play with. Whether he ate him or turned him, he would be one step closer to turning into her Tiger.

* * *

A/N: Drusilla is quoting Aesop's Fable of the lion and the mouse. The mouse (Ford) offers to help her.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5.

"I've got some bad news." Willow told Buffy when they met in the Library. She liked having Giles and even Ethan as backup when she had to give bad news to the Slayer. "Ford isn't enrolled at Sunnydale High School or any high school in California. His parents are still in LA and they've recently gone deep into debt to pay for medical bills. I couldn't hack the records to find out the name, without more time, but he doesn't have any brothers or sisters. The only paperwork I could find for him in Sunnydale was on the lease for a building in the warehouse district called the Sunset Club."

"Vampire worshipers." Ethan said. At the looks he got, he explained. "The word is already out on those wackos. And they tried to recruit me while I was in Hospital. No more pain, magical healing, live forever all that rubbish. Just left out the part about the demon taking over." he shot a smirk at Giles.

Giles looked uncomfortable for a moment. "Yes. Well, the next question is what do we do with this information. Do we want to confront your... former friend or shall we play along?"

Buffy thought for a moment. "We play along. Now that we're on our guard, there's not much he can do to us."

"Do be careful Buffy." Giles said. "Ms. Calendar and I are going... somewhere tonight, and she's given me the number of her beeper thingy, uh, in case of emergency." he handed over a slip of paper. "Though perhaps I should stay in case there's trouble?"

Buffy shook her head. "No, you go on your date. Experience this thing called fun. I can handle Billy Fordham fine by myself. But Willow, I don't want you alone with him."

"Not planning on being alone with him. Not planing on being in the same room with him period." Willow assured her. "I wish Xander were here."

"We all do, but we also don't want him turned into flambe. We'll see him after the sun goes down. And let him and Angel gloat over being right this time. It's hard to believe, the two of them united on anything and then they turn out to be right. I'll never leave it down." Buffy sighed.

"Are they going to be getting along more now? Cause the thought of that just gives me the wiggins." Willow said.

"I doubt it. Angel said they've both been extra civil to each other since... But the veneer is wearing thin." Buff answered. At Giles' look, she added, "I was quoting Angel. Angel's been showing him the ropes of being a vampire and Xander's been nice in exchange, hasn't called him one dirty name."

"Wow, that's impressive for Xander." Willow realized.

"Yeah. But it won't last. They're already making plans for getting Xander his own apartment. Apparently there are plenty of apartments with no windows in Sunnydale, but a lot of them are taken. Especially the ones with sewer access. So, they're trying to find the renters of a couple and _encouraging_ them to blow out of town."

"So many vampires that apartments without windows are in high demand? And you wonder why I didn't want to stay on the Hellmouth, Rupert." Ethan smirked.

"How's that de-spelling of Xander coming?" Buffy turned her hard eyes on the Englishman.

Ethan swallowed. "Slowly, I'm afraid."

"Well, get back on it." she ordered icily.

Ethan could only nod and hobble to fulfill her wishes.

After the girls were gone, Giles went to his office to bug Ethan. "I thought you didn't believe in lying?"

"Yes, well my principles don't extend to poking an already perturbed Slayer. Besides, it wasn't lying. It is going horribly slowly, don't you agree?"

Giles had to agree. 'Going Nowhere' was certainly a slow pace.

* * *

It turned out that Buffy didn't have to play along for long. She met Ford in the halls just a few minutes later. Willow squeaked and beat a hasty retreat with Ford looking on. "Who's the blue-eyed vampire?" he asked out of the blue.

"Xander." she whispered before she even realized she'd spoken. She hadn't meant to give up that information. It had just slipped out because she was worried about him.

"Really? I'm surprised you hang out with him then. No matter. Bring him by my club tonight. Say around nine?" he handed her a card with the name and address for the Sunset Club on it.

"We'll be there." Buffy promised.

* * *

"Alright, we ready to go?" Buffy said as they finished going over the plan. "Thanks for getting these blueprints for us Willow, but you should probably get home now." she watched as the redhead left.

"Why does she get to go home?" Ethan asked.

"Because, we're hoping that putting you in danger regular-like will inspire you research faster." Buffy gave him a smile to chill him to the bone. Just then the library doors opened again. "You forget something, Willow?"

Willow _was_ there. But she was being pushed in front of Billy Fordham, who had a knife to her throat. Xander had a gun out and aimed at Ford before the human could blink. Alexander, the Death Dealer, wouldn't have hesitated to put a bullet in the boy's brain, knowing he was very unlikely to miss even such a small target at this range; and unwilling to enter into a hostage crisis even if he did miss. Xander however, was unsure of his shooting prowess; or rather he was sure that he wasn't good enough to take that shot. Especially with Willow in the way.

"Drop the gun!" Ford ordered.

Xander slowly complied, then reached in and slowly pulled out his other gun and placed it too on the floor.

"Kick them away." Ford said.

Xander complied, kicking them to the side, rather than at the attacker.

"Ford, bestest bud of mine. What the _fuck_ do you want?" Buffy swore, testament to how angry she was.

"The blue-eyed vampire. I want him to turn me. I was told that if he turned me, I'll still be me. I was willing to settle for less at this point, but if I can still be me afterwards, all the better." Ford explained.

"Who told you that?" Angel asked.

"She didn't tell me her name, must have been a fortune teller though. She said the stars told her." Ford answered.

"Drusilla." Angel said.

"You know her?" Buffy asked her boyfriend.

Angel dipped his head. "I sired her."

Ford smirked. "You're a vampire too? Strange company you keep there, _Vampire Slayer_."

"So, you want me to... sire you?" Xander got the conversation back on track. Letting his anger grow so his eyes turned blue and his fangs emerged. "Do you know how that works?"

Ford nodded and pulled the knife away from Willow's neck just a bit. Not enough to give Xander or the others an opening, but enough that he wouldn't cut Willow by accident. "You drink from me, I drink from you, then I wake up a vampire."

"That's for the other type of vampire. For my type, it's: I drink and you either die from the virus that I pass to you, or you become like me. And just to warn you, less than 25% of people survive. You're likely to die in less than an hour."

"Beats the alternative. I've got six more months of painful tumors burrowing through my brain before they bury the shriveled husk of my body. So, yeah. I'll take the risk." Ford said. "Besides, that woman wouldn't have sent me if I wouldn't survive."

"The headaches." Xander realized. Ford had been concerned about his fake headache at the Bronze.

"Like you wouldn't believe." Ford said steadily. "Do you still get them?"

"Only around bright lights and loud noises." Xander said.

Ford could live with that. "So how do we do this?"

Xander took a step forward. "First you let Willow go."

Ford looked unconvinced.

Xander turned towards the others. "Look, guys. Back off. I'm going to give him what he wants. Odds are he'll die anyways, so let me handle it."

First Buffy and then Angel nodded acquiescence.

"Take Willow into the office. I don't want her seeing me feeding." he ordered then turned back to Ford who still hadn't let Willow go. "Listen, I understand why you thought you had to take Willow prisoner, but I've agreed to try to turn you now. Either you trust me to keep my word or we don't do this. Because this is going to hurt quite a bit and I won't risk her life that you might kill her with a spasm." he warned.

Ford swallowed, then slowly removed the knife and let Willow go. Willow dove into Xander's arms.

"Sh, sh, sh, shhhhh." he held her and stroked her hair as she sobbed in his arms. Buffy came over and took her gently into her own arms, carrying her back to the office with Ethan and Angel. Xander fixed his eyes on a suddenly very nervous Billy Fordham. He stepped forward slowly, knocked the knife from his hands, then leaned to the side and pulled the boy's neck to his mouth. He bit. Hot and sweet the blood flowed into his mouth and he greedily drank. He had reached Nirvana. Nothing else could compare to the incredible taste and the pleasure than radiated from his stomach. If demonic vampires experienced half of this pleasure when feeding, he suddenly understood their blood-lust. Which was what it was. Hot and heavy in his stomach and filling him up like a sponge soaking up water. Soon, he realized the blood was slowing, if he wanted to give Ford half a chance at living he would have to stop now.

He didn't stop.

From the moment he'd held a knife to Willow's throat, Ford's fate had been sealed. This was just the easiest, … and tastiest way to accomplish that. He drained every last drop he could, even lifting the boy's legs to get the blood there to drain to his neck. He finally broke free and took a huge gasp of air. He wondered briefly how long it had been since he'd taken a breath. Longer than a normal human could go was all he knew. He stood up and looked down at Ford's pale body, a few drops of blood dripped from the wounds he'd caused.

"It's over." Ethan called.

Xander spun, he hadn't even realized Ethan had been watching. He expected the Brit's usual smirk, but instead, he was very serious; his eyes sad. Willow pushed past the mage and threw herself at Xander again. Xander spun so that she wouldn't have to look at Ford's body.

"Is it over? I mean for now. How long until we know?" Willow babbled.

"Shhh. It's over. And he's not going to rise. I drained too much blood." he left out the 'on purpose'. Then over his shoulder. "Though it would be good to be sure. We need to burn the body."

"There's an alley by his club that should do." Angel offered. "I'll take him."

"You can help." Xander said. This was his responsibility. He took the life, he'd see it through to the end.

Ethan was on the ground while the others talked, wrapping the body in a large, paint stained canvas. He stood up when he was finished. "You can take Rupert's car if you like. I know you can run faster than it, but it will make transporting the body less noticeable. And I'll go. You see to your girl."

Xander shook his head. "I have to see him burn. Otherwise some part of me will always wonder if he's out there. No matter how trustworthy," he looked from Angel to Ethan, "or not, you are." he looked back at Angel. "Ethan and I can handle this. You look after Willow for me."

* * *

Drusilla danced around the factory. The stars were singing to her bright and clear. Kitten had bared his fangs and eaten the little mouse. She smiled and clapped her hands gleefully at words only she could hear.

* * *

Six pallets, laid three end to end and two high became Ford's funeral pyre. Paper, cardboard, and broken bits of other pallets and anything else burnable became tinder. A bucket of used fryer oil from a nearby Chinese restaurant was liberally doused over the entire thing, then it was lit. The flames started small but quickly built.

When Ford's body started to move, Xander got a little freaked out that he had begun turning as they were burning him. But Ethan's hand rested calmly on his shoulder. "Relax, it's just the tendons shrinking in the heat." he said calmly.

Xander took another look and noted that there was no organized movement, the Brit was probably right. He took a shaky breath. "Not something they show in the movies."

"No, I would say not. We probably should have cut those tendons, but it slipped my mind." Ethan smiled this time instead of smirking. "Just to let you know. This amount of wood won't turn the body to ash. There will still be bones left over. Do you want to leave them or take them with?"

Xander thought for a moment. "Leave 'em. His parents deserve to know he's dead. We just don't want anyone to know how." The two continued to watch the pyre until it petered out, leaving bones lying in ash.

"And nobody came. I'm only somewhat surprised that the fire brigade never showed up." Ethan complained.

"Not worth the risk for such a small fire." Xander said.

"I wouldn't say nobody." Drusilla called from the darkness of an alley across the street.

"Drusilla. What do you want?" Xander asked. He didn't even know how he knew her name now. Ford's brief visit with her flashed through his mind and Angel saying her name and admitting that he'd turned her.

"Did you enjoy the mouse I sent you Kitten? Soon you'll be a big strong Tiger. Tyger! Tyger! burning bright. In the forests of the night. And I think I'm just the immortal hand and eye you need to frame thy fearful symmetry." Drusilla chanted out the ancient poem then disappeared into the darkness. Even Xander's vampire senses couldn't track her with his night vision impaired by the nearby fire.

"Interesting friends you have, Alexander." Ethan pronounced.

* * *

A/N: Fun trivia: A sunset of 6:27 as in canon, actually puts the date of Lie To Me on Friday, October, 10, 1997. Exactly 3 weeks _before_ Halloween.

_The Tyger_ is by William Blake. I'm pretty sure the copyright on that is expired.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6.

Arriving back at the library, Willow launched herself yet again at Xander. And this time she wasn't going to be letting go until she was cried out and another hour beyond that. Xander listened to her patiently, giving her soft shushing noises or reassuring sounds where appropriate. After she was cried out, she simply sat on his lap with her arms still wrapped around his neck. Xander was turned so that he could see the front door of the library and Willow could not see the area in front of the book cage where he'd killed Ford. He wasn't surprised at all that the floor looked and smelled freshly cleaned.

He looked up when Giles and Ms. Calendar came in.

"You coulda just said something." Ms. Calendar said.

"Uh, honestly, I- I've always- I've always been interested in- in- uh, monster trucks." Giles claimed.

They took a look around. Ms. Calendar spoke first. "Geez, who died?" she asked sarcastically.

There were a couple sharp intakes of breaths around the room and Willow started silently crying again.

"Oh, no. I'm sorry. Who died?" she asked in very heartfelt tones, putting a hand to her breast.

"Ford." Buffy spoke up.

"Your friend with the vampire worshipers?" Giles reminded himself. "I realize he was human and once your friend but I'm sure that you had-"

"We're not sad for him." Buffy cut her watcher off. "We're sad because Xander had to kill him. And because Willow was his hostage."

"Ahh, I see." Giles disappeared into his office and returned a minute later with two pills and a glass of water. He held them out to Willow. "These will hopefully give you a dreamless sleep tonight. Tomorrow morning, you and I will have a 1-on-1 counseling session. And you, Xander, I will see you just after sunset for your own session."

"I don't need-"

"Whether or not you need help beyond what I can provide will be the main topic we'll discuss tomorrow." Giles' tone brooked no argument.

* * *

"Are we okay?" Xander asked Buffy after they'd walked Willow home and tucked her in.

"What do you mean?" Buffy asked.

"I killed your friend." Xander stated simply.

They walked in silence for a while as Buffy collected her thoughts. "He wasn't my friend. Not any more. Holding Willow hostage, trying to become a vampire... those aren't things that my _friend_ would have done. Maybe the tumors changed him? Who knows? What I do know, is that while you were dealing with him, I was wishing I was the one who got to kill Ford; while trying to console my best friend with the help of Ethan Rayne of all people."

"He has surprising depths." Xander allowed, not mentioning the incident in the alley.

* * *

Giles sighed, put down his pen, and closed the book he was taking notes from. Willow's session had been, well he didn't want to say refreshing, because what the girl had gone through was horrible, but it was a nice change of pace from dealing with a Slayer. Her counseling would be fairly straightforward and he was fairly confident that he could help her overcome her trauma. But Xander would be much tougher. American boys were so reticent about sharing feelings, he knew the upcoming session would be like pulling teeth in more ways than one.

Slayers were much easier. Council trained Slayers were trained to think of their opponents as inhuman. Which, they were. But they were also sentient beings, and Slayers who realized that second fact often had a tough time Slaying after that. They usually died shortly thereafter, often hesitating to deliver fatal blows and giving their opponents a second chance. Buffy, though not council trained, had taken up the cause that demons were not human with a vengeance, and therefore dispatched most of her foes with ease.

But Xander hadn't killed a demon. He'd killed a human being. That was always hard on the psyche of anyone, even Slayers.

"Good evening, Xander." Giles greeted the boy as he entered. "Tea?"

"Sure."

Giles poured the tea and handed a cup to Xander. "Before we begin, I just wanted to let you know one thing. Willow gave me a rundown of events from her perspective and I wanted to mention now so I don't interrupt you and I don't forget. She said you now carry two pistols?"

Xander pulled aside his black leather jacket to show the butt of one of the guns. He'd never been a leather jacket guy before being turned. But he collected them by the ton from vampires he and Angel killed. Besides, they just felt right now.

"Right. I trust you'll know when and where to use them. I just wanted to warn you that the council takes a very dim view of vampires who use firearms. In fact, they have a team of... well mercenaries, mostly former SAS, that hunt down and kill any vampires that use guns. So be judicious in your use of them."

"Why do they do that?" Xander wondered.

"Because, they fear vampires learning what kind of advantage modern guns can bring them. Temporary though it might be. There are a number of rounds that are fairly effective against vampires, though most of the world's militaries do not have sufficient stocks of any of these to fight even a small army of gun-wielding vampires. If such a thing were to happen, they would likely have several months of being almost invincible. And that would inspire other vampires to imitate them. The death toll of something like that would be enormous. So, I will say again, _Discretion_."

Xander's eyes went wide. He'd never thought about it like that. He nodded numbly.

"Wonderful. Let us begin." Giles forced a smile he didn't feel.

* * *

It had been several hours since the session started. Giles was sure, though, that he was very close to having his first breakthrough with Xander. Then they could both go home for the night.

"And when you drained Ford, how did that feel? Physically?" Giles was betting on Xander's physiology being similar to other vampires. It _had_ to feel good to get a vampire like Xander past the idea of feeding on another human.

"It felt good! Okay!? It felt great! It's was the best I've ever felt in my life." Xander collapsed into his hands.

"I know." Giles said.

"Huh?"

"Of course it felt good. It has to or else the vampire race in that world or in this one would have died out long ago." Giles reasoned. "The real question is are you going to turn into an indiscriminate killer now or can you go back to subsisting on pig's blood?"

"I'm not going to go around killing random people." Xander insisted quietly but firmly.

"Wonderful. Then I think we're done for the night." Giles said.

"Can I say, 'huh' again?"

"You've realized that you are still human, and still in control of your urges. That's everything I was hoping for this session. It's late, and I'm quite tired. Tomorrow night we'll discuss the actual reasons you had for killing Ford."

"I can't wait." the boy said sarcastically.

Giles shook his head. He really didn't have time to give the boy a proper counseling; or Willow either for that matter. But he had enough time to make them both realize that it wasn't their fault at least. Willow would have to see a proper physiologist who wasn't one of her parents. As long as she was careful with her story, it didn't even have to be one in the know.

* * *

There was one memory of Ford's that Xander liked to play over and over, the one where a 10 year old Buffy nervously asked him to the Sadie Hawkins dance. He always skipped over the part where Ford had said 'no' and went into a fantasy of him and Buffy, as they were now, dancing together.

Other than that memory, there was nothing in Ford's memories that was useful or interesting, and he suppressed them violently. If for no other reason than absorbing memories through blood gave lie to assertion that he was a purely biological creation and not mystical in any way. Because he knew there was no physical way for memories to pass by blood. That had to be some type of magic. And he was too afraid and/or embarrassed to ask Angel if the other species of vamps had similar powers.

Besides, Angel was trying his own clumsy counseling session with Xander.

"You have to- You have to be careful." Angel stumbled. "...be careful not to get a taste for it."

Xander was glad Angel was never going to be a counselor. Frankly, if he hadn't already had Giles' session, he would be closer now to becoming a killer than when Angel had started.

"Listen, Angel. I've already got the memories of killing a couple hundred humans. This one at least deserved it. Most of the others were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"What? Oh, you mean the Halloween memories?" Angel realized. "Those don't count."

Xander scoffed. "Really? Then neither do Angelus' memories. They don't count either."

"That's not the same. Those people are really dead." Angel defended.

"So? Alexander really killed his victims too. They might be in another reality, or maybe they've hid so well that we've never heard of them." Xander said. "He wasn't killing for fun. He killed out of necessity and a couple of times just to feed. But... 264. That's how many humans he killed. Not counting Lycans. But unlike you, I realize those kills were made by someone else. And that lets me close my eyes for the day and not see their faces." _most of the time,_ he left out.

"And Ford?" Angel asked.

"Ford held a knife to Willow's throat. I'd have killed him even if I was still a human." Xander said coldly.

* * *

Drusilla laid in bed listlessly. Kitten had been so close to falling, she could taste it. And then that nasty watcher had watched a bit too closely and pulled him back from the brink. And now it would be harder than ever to turn him into a proper Tiger.

Spike, for his part, was sad that Dru was again taking a turn for the worse in her disease. Her mad ramblings going on about kittens and tigers. He sent out five minions this time to hit the library when hopefully no one would be home to grab the book that would hopefully hold Drusilla's cure. "Rest now, luv. Spike'll make you all better soon."

* * *

A week later and Xander was out early one morning (morning for him) and saw a familiar face in a window. Principal Snyder was eating a TV dinner in front of his TV. Xander couldn't help himself but ring the doorbell.

"Harris. You've been absent for several weeks now. I'm pleased to be able to tell you personally that you'll be failing and will have to repeat your Junior year." the principal said snidely.

"And I'm pleased to tell you personally that I've dropped out. I'll be taking my GED and graduating before the rest of my class." Xander answered equally snidely. "I'd love to tell you all about it, do you mind if I come in?"

Snyder stiffened at that request. Xander gave him an evil smile. He didn't actually have that limitation, but he wanted Snyder to think he was safe inside his home. It would make it all the more surprising if/when Xander had to show him he wasn't. "No, huh? That's okay. I don't really want to kill you anyway. This is, after all, your fault. I was turned on Halloween, the night you made us 'volunteer' to go out with the kids. Not sure if Buffy's made the connection yet, but I hope someone tapes what she does to you when she does realize that fact."

"That wasn't my fault. My orders come from the Mayor." Snyder tried to weasel his way out of this. "And I have protection from him. You do anything to me and you'll be dust before you can spit."

"The mayor is aware of what goes on here?" Xander half questioned, half realized. "Of course, I should have known this went all the way to the top. And do those orders include picking on Buffy and Willow?"

"He wants her off balance." the weasel nodded.

"Well that ends now. Or I tell her how it's your fault I got turned."

"She'd stake you on sight now, Harris." Snyder spat.

"What makes you think she doesn't know? Even let me kill a guy for her. But he was really bad. Like doing the world a favor by killing him, bad. Almost as bad as you in fact." Xander warned.

Snyder turned red at that.

"No more being mean to her. I don't care if you're nice. That might actually freak her out. Just avoid her. Don't look at her, don't say anything to her. And that goes double for Willow.

Snyder didn't answer, just slammed his door in Xander's face. But Xander was pretty sure he'd gotten his point across.

* * *

"No. We didn't really talk about our pasts." Ethan said. "I didn't know then that he was the son of a watcher. At the time, I didn't know anything about real magic either. But we delved in too quickly, dug too deep. Found a demon."

"Like the dwarves of Moria, unleashing the Balrog!" Willow said enthusiastically.

"Yes," Ethan said uneasily. "Except that this one is real. Though less spectacular than a demon made of shadow and flame, this one possesses unconscious people and gives you a feeling of great power along with an incredible high."

"You mean to tell me that stuffy watcher-man has a dark side?" Xander asked.

"Dark enough to make me look like a choir boy." Ethan assured him. "Now it was all fun and games until-"

"Someone loses an eye?" Buffy finished.

"Their life, actually. His name was Randall if you're interested. The demon took him. We never met as a group after that. Mostly drifted apart, back to our old worlds. Got on with our lives. But now Ripper and I have been having dreams to indicate that the demon might be back. We've been researching ways to permanently banish the demon."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get on with the researching." Xander said.

"Excuse me?" Ethan said. "I'm not sure R-"

"We don't like you." Buffy interrupted. "You turned Xander into a vampire. But Giles is one of ours. So make with the details."

"It's rather private." Ethan tried, knowing Rupert wasn't going to be pleased. (and trying not to grin at that fact) But he had to put up a token resistance or they'd know they were being played.

"I don't care from private. Tell Giles not to put it in my Slaying diary then. He's the one who writes it anyway." Buffy said. "Tell him to put in 3 vamps and Godzilla."

Ethan shot Buffy a look. "Godzilla?"

"I always wonder if anyone ever reads those things. My way of finding out." Buffy smiled.

"Alright." Ethan smirked that his plan had worked and started rolling up his sleeve to expose his tattoo. "The demon's name is Eyghon..."

* * *

A pounding on the back door of the library interrupted their research party. A muted voice called out, "Help! Help! Somebody, please!"

Xander and Buffy rushed off through the stacks, leaving the other two wondering for a moment before chasing after them. Xander opened the door, while Buffy pulled the man inside before the zombie outside could get to him. The zombie started pounding on the door instead.

"Ethan?" the man they'd saved said.

"Philip?" Ethan replied. "Is it...?"

"It got Diedre." Philip hung his head.

"Never mind that." Ethan said. "You brought it here, you ponce. And we're not ready yet."

"Ethan Rayne." a woman's voice called out. "I'm surprised. It's been 30 seconds since I arrived and you haven't run yet, you little chicken shit."

Everyone looked at Ethan at that realization. He smirked. "You people are scarier than any demon." He had already scratched plan A, which had been to use acid to remove his own tattoo and let the demon have Buffy instead. What Xander would do to him in revenge didn't bear thinking about. Not that he could run very fast with his leg still in a cast. And the boy would have done worse on their first meeting if Rupert hadn't stepped in. At least it was healing quickly.

Buffy smiled, she liked being scarier than demons. "So what do we do about zombie-lady?"

"I say we take her." Xander said.

Before anyone could say otherwise, Buffy and Xander were out the door and already beating on the decaying body of Diedre.

"So, what do we do while they deal with her?" Willow wondered.

Before Ethan could answer, Giles' voice carried from the library entryway. "Hello?"

* * *

Xander and Buffy kicked the demon's butt until she was running away. She ran right into a group of five vamps. She melted, literally, into the arms of the biggest vamp. The vampire's face changed to a different demon and back into a vampire several times before the vampire's face came out on top. "What the _fuck_ was that?" the vamp asked.

"A possession demon. Looks like the demon inside you was stronger than her. Good thing too." Buffy said. "Now, in thanks, I'm prepared to offer you a one-time deal. You can walk away right now, and I don't Slay you."

"The Slayer!" one of the vamps realized.

All five attacked. Four went after Buffy while one kept Xander busy. Except that Xander was starting to get better again. Not great yet, but he was fast enough that one vamp wasn't a match for him at all. A feint to the head and a thrust with a stake and the vamp was dust. Xander snuck up behind one of the four Buffy was fending off and staked him in the back. One of the three left fighting Buffy switched over to Xander. He tripped the vamp as it jumped at him and the demon fell on his own face. Xander jumped right on top of him, drawing a second stake as he fell and staked the vampire's arms into the ground. He mugged the vamp quickly, pocketed the cash and a watch, then finished him off. Meanwhile, the Slayer was down to her last opponent.

"Wait! Don't stake him yet!" Xander called. He circled around the vamp and after a few feints, got the vamp in a full-nelson. "Okay, now check his pockets." he said.

"Eww." Buffy complained. "Looking for what?"

"Cash, jewelry, whatever. Some of these guys are loaded. Angel and I each took home $2,000 the other night." and that had been a slow night.

Buffy eventually found a roll of bills. "Wow. I've been missing out." she said.

"Okay, now you can stake him. Not too deep, if you don't mind." Xander said as the vamp started to struggle.

They took a moment to split their winnings before heading back to the school.

* * *

"Hi Giles." Buffy flounced back into the library foyer. "Eagon is dead. Tried to posses a vamp, but the current occupant objected. Rather violently."

"That's Eyghon." Ethan corrected. "And it got Diedre. Sorry old boy. But we saved Philip at least." he waved to their former friend, wide eyed and sipping tea, while not seeing the rest of the world.

"Wait. You-" Giles tried to speak.

"Xander and I kicked its butt right into a pack of vamps. The rest is history. Or dust in the wind. Or something. But it's dead and so are the vamps." Buffy didn't mention the $700 in her pocket. She considered that payback for all the outfits that had been ruined while she was Slaying.

* * *

A/N: IMHO, Angel's 'counseling' session with Faith did more to push her away than anything else, including Wesley's poorly executed abduction. Especially the fact that he kept the rest of the Scoobies away. His talk about how 'she had a taste for it now' showed how little he thought of her and how he already thought of her as a lost cause. Angel crashes and burns similarly here.

I do not own the Lord of the Rings or anything else by J.R.R. Tolkien.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7.

Buffy sighed and tried to decide if patrolling with Angel AND Xander was better or worse than just with Angel. Sure, her bank account and her closet had never looked better, but having Xander along was seriously cutting into her smooching time and she was getting cranky about that. She was itching to be alone with him. Even now that Xander had his own 'daylight secured' apartment (with sewer access even) Angel said he wanted to watch Xander's back for a couple more weeks.

"Just until he gets back up to snuff. Then it's you and me." he'd said.

"Just remember: mug first, then dust. Because I saw these new shoes at the mall the other day that I just _have_ to have." Buffy told him.

"These are in some way different than the last dozen pairs of shoes you bought?" Angel clarified.

That had been a mistake, she'd laid into him for a couple minutes before Xander had interrupted. Still fuming, she had fought with a fury that night. Perhaps a little too intently, as she tended to dust her opponents before they could be mugged. Xander and Angel were the only ones bringing in money that night.

"You insulted her shoes?" Xander asked.

"I don't know! I can't tell the difference between one pair and the next. When I was alive, you were counted as wealthy if you owned two pairs of shoes. And those would last your entire life." Angel complained. "I've lost count of how many shoes she's bought just this week. Letting her in on this may have been a mistake."

"Well, it's a mistake we can't take back. Don't try to understand it. Just smile, nod, and compliment her shoes at the next opportunity." Xander advised. He knew he shouldn't, but he felt like he owed Angel for all his help the last couple weeks. He had to admit, having a friendly vampire had made the transition so much easier than it might otherwise have been. There was a lot to learn like sunrise timetables, locations of sewer accesses if he couldn't get home by then, how to order a glass of B-neg at Willy's, the exchange rate between dollars and kittens for kitten poker (though he turned his winnings back into dollars)... it was a good thing he wasn't in school any more. There was a whole Other Side to the world that he was learning now. But he had his own apartment, his own guns, and was rather quickly rebuilding skills that had been lost.

"Do you think giving her part of our earnings today so she can buy more shoes would make her happier?" Angel wondered.

"You can give her part of _your_ portion if you want. I'm not the one who insulted her shoes." Xander said. "Besides, I need tonight's take to make rent."

"What'd you do with the rest of your money?" Angel had to ask.

"Some went into some new guns. But most of it, I invested."

Angel looked at Xander like he'd grown horns. "Invested? In what?"

"Blood. Underworld vamps were big into the blood business. And good at making money from it. Did you know only 37% of the population is eligible to donate blood to humans? But the other 63% is usually plenty tasty. I set up a company that will take blood from that larger group. It still functions as a regular blood bank too, selling the good blood to the humans, plus buying other banks' unusable blood and passing what humans can't use on to those of us who need it." Xander explained.

"And then what?"

"The first shop will be opening in Sunnydale in less than a month. Human blood, available to every vampire who can pay, without having to kill anyone and get on the Slayer's radar."

"So, you're going to supply them with blood so they can stay alive? Or undead?" Angel wondered.

"For now. I can think of more than one way to kill them all off once they're all using my blood." Xander said coldly.

Frankly, it made Angel a little uncomfortable the easy way Xander talked about stuff like that so he changed the subject. "Do you think we should help her?"

"Only if you want a high heel up your backside. She's working out her anger."

"Aww! She's letting the little one get away!" Angel complained about the fight Buffy had picked in front of a mausoleum.

"No she's not." Xander assured the older vamp. "See? She tackled him from behind... and he's dust."

"Hey guys! Look what the little one dropped!" Buffy bounced over to the vampires holding a giant, golden cross.

Angel hissed and backed away.

"What? It's pretty! Don't you think, Angel?" Buffy asked with mock cheerfulness.

"Look, I'm sorry about my comment about the shoes. Now will you _please_ put that thing away?" Angel begged.

Xander walked forward, took the cross from Buffy, and walked off a ways. With their preternatural hearing, they could all be pretty far away and still hear normal conversational voices. Xander studiously ignored the lovey dovey crap the two of them were spouting. When they stopped talking and started kissing, he gave them a minute before he interrupted. "You know, Angel has his own place now, you two can go back there and stop making out in a cemetery." he said in a normal conversational voice, but they heard him just fine. "Cause I'm going to show this to Giles. You guys coming?"

It didn't take long for Angel and Buffy to look at each other and shake their heads quickly, then they moved off in the direction of Angel's apartment.

"Yeah, I'll just take this to Giles while you guys go make like bunnies." Xander told a headstone as he walked the other way.

* * *

"FUCK!" Spike yelled. "They got- they got- ... What was his name? Dalton! That was his name. They got Dalton and the key to your cure pet. What are we going to do?"

Drusilla just smiled and turned over her cards. "They're coming to my party. Three of them."

"Who are, pet?" Spike asked.

"Taraka." Dru licked her lips. This was plan B for turning her Kitten.

Spike was on the phone to the LA branch of the Order of Taraka that night.

* * *

"Buffy went on a bit of a rampage after Angel insulted her shoes." at a look from Giles, he went on. "Don't ask. Anyway, she got the vamps trying to steal this from a mausoleum. You can have 10% if you fence it."

"Xander." Giles chided.

"Fine, 15%. But no more."

"Xander." Giles said a bit louder. "I am not fencing this. This is a priceless relic and-"

"And gold's selling at $300 per troy ounce." Xander pointed out. "I'm not sure what a troy ounce is but that thing is pretty hefty, even with fancy vampire strength."

Giles sighed. The boy probably did need money. It would be difficult to get by as a vampire. "I'll give you $1,000 dollars, is that enough?"

Xander scoffed and took the cross back from Giles. "No."

"Very well. I'll contact the council and see what arrangements can be made." Giles allowed. "Now can I please have the cross back? I recognize it from somewhere, fairly recently I think. It could be important."

It took Giles 20 minutes of thinking and searching before he found what he was looking for. "There we are. It's called the Du Lac Cross. Used to understand certain mystical texts, and to decipher hidden meanings and so forth... Oh no. There was a book stolen from the library last week. It was written by Du Lac."

"I'm thinking this is not a good thing." Xander said.

"Josephus du Lac belonged to a religious sect that was excommunicated by the Vatican at the turn of the century." Giles replied.

"And then, apparently buried in Sunnydale. I mean, it does make it convenient for us that we don't have to fly around the country looking for evil, it just comes and buries itself here of its own accord. But does everything evil have to end up here?"

"Indeed." Giles agreed. "The book was said to contain rituals and spells that reap unspeakable evil. However, it was written in archaic Latin so that nobody but the sect members could understand it."

"So, someone stole the book, but we have the decoder key. So we're okay?"

"For now." Giles allowed. "I'll have to see about finding a secure place for this."

"And have you found anything about the Mayor yet?" Xander asked.

"Nothing. If he is a demon, he's not in any of my books." Giles admitted.

"Fine. You had your chance. Now we tell everyone and see if anyone's heard anything." Xander said.

Giles bowed his head in defeat. "Very well."

* * *

Xander turned the key and stepped into his apartment. A blast of cool, moist air hit him as he entered. The cool-mist humidifier filled with holy water was one of the passive guards he had in the house. He had another humidifier in the laundry room, which also contained the sewer access to the unit. He and Angel had discovered that Angel hadn't needed an invitation to enter his apartment, so the humidifiers were a guard against other vamps trying to enter his place. That they also kept Angel out was only a bonus. Other demons were less likely to need the no-windows apartment designed for vampires, but he still checked the place thoroughly before he removed his guns. He no longer carried a matched set.

His 9mm was now loaded with subsonic rounds and had a silencer fitted on the end. It didn't make the shots nearly as quiet as they sounded in the movies, but combined with subsonic rounds to prevent the CRACK of a sonic boom, it didn't sound as much like a gun firing any more. The bullets packed less of a punch as they now traveled slower than normal supersonic bullets, but they were still enough to punch through a vampire's head and put him on the ground for easy mugging/staking.

His other gun was no longer a 9mm. Instead it was a new Five-Seven pistol. Loaded with 20 rounds of 5.7 X 28mm black tipped, armor piercing ammo in case he had to go after any really tough demons that the de-powered 9mm rounds wouldn't hurt any more. He also carried two backup magazines that were the extended style, sticking out from the bottom of the gun just a bit and holding a full 30 rounds each.

Pauly, at the gun range, was his new best friend after overcharging him for getting the contraband paraphernalia. He had also gotten some more high Ag, silver bullets. They were only available in 9mm for pistol ammo so Xander kept them with his other 9mm, which mostly stayed at home. Xander hung up his shoulder holster just as a crack of lightning sounded outside. _That's odd,_ he thought. _ Weather report didn't even mention a chance of rain tonight._ Still, it was winter in California, the rainy season, so he paid it no mind.

* * *

The anger she'd felt at what Angel had said, she couldn't even remember what that had been any more, turned to passion after he'd apologized. Passion, led to kissing, led to lust, led to petting, led to naked, led to here. Every girl had that moment of panic after their first time, though hers was different, even if they hadn't used protection, they were both pretty sure he couldn't get her pregnant, being dead and all already. And he was kind, soft, and gentle. Everything she could have asked for in her first lover, if a little cool to start with. But once they started rubbing a bit, the friction seemed to warm him and she didn't even notice it any more. She tried not to think about how experienced he probably was to become such a good lover.

She rolled over. His side of the bed was cool, but it was always cool, what with the no body heat. But there was also no body. She sat up and looked around the room, not seeing Angel anywhere. The door was open and rain was coming in from a passing thunderstorm.

* * *

A/N: Technically, the Five-Seven didn't enter production until 1998. Though the P90 and the ammo were both available by 1990. Let's just say he was able to get a hold of an early production model or even a prototype. Who knows.

A/N: Yes, the sexual tension of not being able to be with her beau for a few weeks, plus an argument over shoes led to steamy makeup sex and Angel's soul went back to the ether.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8.

Angel hadn't returned to his apartment by sunup, when Buffy finally went home to shower and change. Then she left for the Career Fair at school that day. Snyder hadn't said anything about it to her; actually he hadn't said anything to her, period, in quite a few days. But she was pretty sure he would mark her absent if she skipped today and she really didn't need any more absences when today was such an easy day.

She approached the school with trepidation. She was no longer a virgin, she was supposed to feel different, right? But apart from a slight ache that reminded her that she'd been having sex only a few hours ago, she didn't feel any different. A little dirty, like everyone would know that she was no longer a virgin and would somehow treat her differently. But after a few conversations, she realized that no one could tell. She started to feel a lot more sure of herself. By the time she and Willow sat down to fill out the questionnaire, she felt mostly back to herself. Only a slight worry that Angel hadn't gotten back from wherever he'd gone by sunup still tickled the back of her mind.

She and Willow took turns asking each other the funnier questions. "Would you enjoy working outdoors?" Buffy asked out loud. "My best Slaying happens outdoors." she filled in the circle.

"Hmm... Do you like shrubs?" Willow asked on her turn. "I think that goes with the outdoors one. I'm going to put 'no'. I'm not 'outdoorsy girl'."

"I'm not sure anyone even proofread this one. Which of these hobbies do you participate in or would like to? Gardening. Reading. Drawing. Reading. Or building computers?"

"Ooo! Building computers!" Willow eagerly marked her answer.

"No, they had 'reading on there twice. Were they trying to make a point that we need to read more or were the people doing the testing just incompetent?" Buffy wondered.

Before Willow could answer, Cordelia walked by. "I aspire to help my fellow man? Check. As long as he's not smelly, dirty or something gross." she stopped and noticed the two girls. "Where's Harris? I haven't seen him for a couple days now."

Willow looked sad at those words. Buffy spoke up instead. "He dropped out. Three weeks ago now. Taking his GED instead. You can stop by the library tonight after sunset though if you want to see him." she hinted.

"Ugh! What's wrong with him? Doesn't he know there's no one else around here still willing to verbally spar with me? My sparring skills are going to atrophy now that he's gone and next year some no account freshman is going to eviscerate me. Doesn't he ever think of others when he does things?" Cordelia wondered.

"I guess not, Cordy." Buffy allowed as long as it got rid of the cheerleader.

"Fine. I'll stop by tonight. Don't let him leave without seeing me." Cordelia ordered before she left.

"Now, where were we?" Buffy asked.

"Reading or reading." Willow answered.

"Right. Maybe there's something special about the second 'reading'." Buffy filled in her bubble.

* * *

Buffy was majorly disappointed when Xander showed up without Angel. "Xander, did you see Angel today?" she asked worriedly.

"No. No one answered at his place. Figured he was already here." Xander replied.

"I'm going to go look for him." Buffy stated.

"I'll help." Xander said, rising.

"No, you need to stay here. Cordelia finally noticed that you dropped out, she said she's coming tonight to see you so she can verbally spar with you." Buffy countered.

"What makes you think I want to see her?" Xander asked. "I'm only staying if you stay."

Buffy mentally calculated the odds that Angel was hurt vs the odds that Cordelia would rip her a new one in front of the entire school if Xander left and ruefully sat back down to try to study the newest bit of demonology Giles was insisting she read. Odds were that nothing had happened to Angel. And if something had, odds were a few more minutes now weren't going to matter.

* * *

"You're dropping out? How dare you!?" Cordelia screeched.

"Gosh, I didn't know you cared, Cordy." Xander smirked.

Cordelia composed herself. "I don't care, dweeb. But now there's no one willing to spar with me. And why the hell are you dropping out anyway? Thanks to cheating off the geek, you weren't exactly failing."

"Hey!" Willow complained. "He never cheated!"

"She knows that, Will. She was just baiting you." Xander said. Cordelia just looked smug. He went on, "I had to drop out because the hours didn't work for me any more. I got turned."

"Turned? Turned where? What the hell are you talking about? Oh, god. Are you a Mormon now?" Cordy said.

"Into a vampire." Xander stated plainly for the cheerleader.

Cordy scoffed. "Right, because the Slayer here would still be all buddy-buddy with you if you got turned into a- Oh my god!" Cordelia changed her tune when Xander vamped out in front of her.

"He still has his soul. Like Angel." Buffy explained.

"But bursting into fire... not conductive to a long life, hence the dropping out." Xander went on.

"So you- So you died?" Cordelia seemed genuinely concerned, even to the point of being close to tears.

"No. It was the Halloween spell that turned me." he left out the part about being different, not wanting to spread that around. "My own fault for dressing as a vampire on the Hellmouth. I should have known better."

"I've been trying to say that all along." Ethan piped in. "I'll just be going now."

"Sit." Buffy commanded. Ethan did.

"Whatever." Cordelia waved them all aside and had recovered from whatever emotion she may or may not have felt. "You just created more work for me. Now have have to go and train in a new witless foil before Christmas br-"

"Ahem." Willow broke in.

"Fine. Before Winter break. Do you know how much work that's going to be?" Cordelia finished.

"Gee, Cordy. I'm sorry my being turned into a vampire is such an inconvenience for you." Xander said as sarcastically as possible.

Still, nothing got through to Cordelia. "Good. You should be sorry. Now, I'm going to go now, before you spread your vampireness to me. It's not contagious is it?"

* * *

Once Cordelia was gone, Buffy and Xander set out in search of Angel. "We should split up and cover more ground." Buffy said 5 minutes into their search.

"If we're going to do that, we should get Giles and Willow out here searching too." Xander said.

"Xander, they'd be eaten alive. If something happened to Angel-"

"It might be able to take one of us individually." Xander cut her off. "There's a good reason Death Dealers always work in teams. Working as a team keeps everyone alive and kills more Lycans than we would otherwise. I don't know if you noticed in the movie, but Selene got a lot of her teammates killed by going off on her own."

"So, when I go to bed, you're going to go to bed too?" Buffy teased.

"No. But I'm better armed than you are." he patted his guns. "And I still say you should get a gun and get trained with it. At least as backup. I can introduce you to Pauly at the gun range, with the money we get from vamps, it's not a stretch to get military grade weapons. He said he's even got a couple anti-vampire rounds if you're interested."

"I don't like guns." Buffy insisted.

"You don't like guns or you don't like being shot at?" Xander pushed, remembering how shook up she'd been after the incident with Darla. "Because, I have to say, it feels better when you're able to shoot back."

"Let's just find Angel." Buffy changed the subject and Xander let it drop.

After Xander checked with Willie, who said he hadn't seen Angel, they moved on to Angel's usual patrol area. They checked all the usual haunts all over Sunnydale. By 2 AM they had checked most of the publicly accessible areas in Sunnydale; including Angel's apartment, twice. Short of breaking into buildings or going around Sunnydale with a blow horn calling his name at 2 AM, they'd done all they could.

"What if we can't find him?" Buffy was near tears and clinging to Xander in desperation.

_Then, he's probably dust._ Xander thought but didn't say. "We will, Buff. I promise. We left a note at his apartment, and I'll swing by there again. Why don't you go home and see if he called and left a message? You want me to walk you home?"

"No, I'll be okay." Buffy wiped away tears that hadn't quite had a chance to fall.

"Alright. Goodnight." he kissed the top of her head.

He watched her walk away for a minute before turning back towards Angel's place. A scuffling sound from behind him made him turn and Buffy was gone. He sprinted towards where she'd just been and found Buffy in a wrestling match with a much bigger, and apparently stronger man wearing black pants and a black leather vest. He was too close to Buffy to risk using his guns, so Xander simply used his body as a battering ram to throw the man off his Slayer. The two of them hit the ground and broke apart, spinning. Xander came up in a three-point stance, his fangs bared and hissing. He thought it sounded weak, but it was an instinctual thing, he couldn't help it.

Xander suddenly wished more than he ever had before that he hadn't lost most of his skills. Even with his skills, he would have been hard pressed to beat this guy in a fair fight. Luckily, he had no intention of fighting fair, he drew his silenced 9mm and put two in the guy's chest and one in his head. The two in the chest made red flowers where they hit, but the one in the head just flattened against the guy's skull. Xander was stunned and didn't even put up a defense when the guy charged and tossed him into a tree, his gun going flying. Xander was unlucky enough to find himself impaled on a branch, with his legs off the ground, and his back to the tree.

Buffy saw Xander shoot the guy three times and it still didn't stop him, she saw Xander go flying but didn't see where he landed; she only saw blood now that her friend was in trouble. She went on the offensive, using her stakes in lieu of knives, but the guy was fast and so much stronger than she was used to. Even stronger than the strongest vamps she had ever faced. And before sparring against Xander, she probably wouldn't have lasted a minute against this guy. Now... she lasted two. And then he was over her, his strong hands choking the life out of her with her blows becoming weaker and weaker as her body lost oxygen. His one good eye boring into her skull, she realized that was the last thing she'd ever see in this world just as she had when she looked at the Master's wall. And then the man's brains splattered all over her face. His lifeless body fell on hers, but his fingers relaxed and she was able to breathe again. She looked over to see her savior, Xander, hanging in the air with a broken tree branch through his gut. A literal smoking gun in his hand.

"And that... concludes our demonstration... of how teamwork and guns... can improve Slaying." he quipped through the pain of being impaled.

* * *

A/N: Today is the day to vote in America. And though I'm American, I've never been convinced that a popularity contest is a good way to choose our leader. I just haven't been able to come up with a reasonable alternative either.

So, I generally vote for whoever is NOT the incumbent. As the old saying goes, "Diapers and politicians should be changed often and for the same reason."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9.

"Oh god, oh god. Xander! Are you alright?" Buffy rushed to his side. The branch he was impaled on was almost at her eye height. "I'll go get help."

"No." Xander stopped her. "I'd rather deal with this here. And then we make sure that guy is really dead." he put away his FiveSeven, slowly, so as not to jar his gut. He would look for the ineffective 9mm once he was healed.

"I'm wearing most of his brains, Xander. I think he's dead." Buffy quipped, more for Xander's benefit than her own.

"I don't suppose you brought a saw with you?" Xander asked more cheerfully than he felt. "Okay, then. Can you reach down to my left leg for me? There's a small packet of blood there."

"That's not much" Buffy observed as she passed up the blood.

"Quarter liter." he said as he took it. "About a cup. It isn't much, you're right. But it'll be enough to hurry my healing. Enough for me to get home anyway." Xander readied himself. He opened the packet and drained it dry. "Okay, now pull me off."

Buffy did as he asked; with a sickening SQUICK and a couple moans from Xander, the vampire was pulled free.

They both laid on the ground breathing hard for a moment. Xander waited a couple minutes until his new wounds had a least healed over on the outside. "Ow." Xander eventually said and started laughing. Even though that hurt his still healing abdomen.

"That's not funny." Buffy said, laughing along. "You almost died."

"You almost died too, if those bruises on your neck are anything to go by. How you going to explain those to your mom?"

"She's on a buying trip." Buffy said, thankful her mother was out of town. "They'll be healed by the time she gets back."

Xander stood up rather painfully and looked at their attacker. "Well, he didn't dust. Let's see if he left us any money for our troubles."

From some bushes across the cemetery, a second Slayer watched a girl and her vampire loot a body while laughing about it.

* * *

"All that trouble and the only thing the guy had on him was this stupid ring." Xander griped, holding the ring in one hand and a glass of warmed blood in the other hand. Xander hadn't fed on the body, but had tested the blood and it had tasted human to him. The man had either still been technically alive when he'd tasted or freshly enough dead that there were still some memories there. Unfortunately, the man was a good little soldier who simply tracked and killed who they told him to. The tracking skills might come in handy, but other than that, the man had no skills Xander hadn't already gotten from Halloween.

"I'll show it to Giles in the morning." Buffy said, taking the ring back. "What's with all the humidifiers? Sunny California too dry for you?"

"There's that. But there's also the Holy Water they're filled with to keep out the neighbors. Kind of like my own security system. At least against vamps."

"Cool! We should do this for the Library!" Buffy said brightly.

"Except then Angel couldn't visit." Xander reminded her gently. It also reminded her of their failure to find her missing boyfriend. "Also, the water wouldn't be good for the books. Giles would throw a fit." he joked as a counter point. He finished off his blood, stood up, and rinsed out his cup in the sink. "Alright. Let me walk you home now."

"What? No way! You just got impaled on a branch, Xander." Buffy objected.

"And I just had plenty of blood and some time to rest and heal. I'm fine now. And I'm not letting you walk home alone. That guy attacked you just after we separated. So, I'm walking you home and that's final. The only question is, 'do you want a gun'?"

Buffy was somewhat less sure of herself than only half an hour ago, before a gun had saved her life. She chewed on her lip for a minute.

"I'll bring my spare along. You can think about it on the way." Xander decided.

The walk to Buffy's house was without incident, even though Xander was extremely nervous. He could have almost sworn that someone was watching him. At her door, Buffy finally declined the gun for the last time.

As Xander started walking away; a man came out of Buffy's neighbor's house, he walked to the sidewalk, turned towards Buffy's house, then crisply turned up the walkway to where Xander was standing. "Who are you?" Xander asked. Something didn't smell right about this guy.

"Good day. I'm Norman Pfister with Blush Beautiful Skin Care and Cosmetics. I was wondering if I might interest you in some free samples?" The man said.

"You're a door-to-door salesman making the rounds in Sunnydale at 3 AM?" Xander asked incredulously.

"Would you like some free samples?" Norman repeated, still holding up his case.

It was then that Xander noticed the ring the guy was wearing. Exactly like the first guy that attacked them earlier that night. Xander backed away and drew his silenced pistol. "Buffy! Grab your weapons. We've got another ring bearer!" he yelled, plenty loud enough for a Slayer to hear. The man continued to advance calmly in the face of Xander's pistol. Xander brought his gun to bear and put two in the guy's head. The man didn't even pause. The bullets left holes in his head which were quickly filled in by what looked like meal worms. "Shit." Xander swore as he turned and ran. He entered the house, closed the door behind him, and locked it. A loud WHUMP sound told him the man had hit the door hard. Xander looked out the small windows of the door and saw the man disintegrating into little meal worms and trying to get in that way. But the well sealed outer door offered them no purchase.

Behind him he heard Buffy come downstairs with an ax, dressed only in a towel. He must have been staring. "What? I was in the shower, washing brains out of my hair."

"You may want to put on some shoes. There's a bug guy trying to get in. And bullets don't seem to bother him... again."

"You and bug people, Xander. What's up with that?" Buffy quipped.

"No, this guy is completely different than praying mantis lady. He's a man made _of_ bugs, not a man who _was_ a bug." Xander countered.

"Fine." Buffy turned to go get dressed as quickly as possible. Xander watched until just before she reached the next floor so she wouldn't catch him watching. _There's one thing different between me and Angel,_ he thought to himself. _I'm still a living, breathing male._

He watched as bugs started to fill the windows in the door. He started slowly backing up as he heard the glass start to crack under the pressure. "He's almost in." he warned. "Ready or not, I'm coming up." he warned the Slayer.

He walked into her room without knocking and got to see her bra covered back just before she pulled a sweater over it. "I don't suppose you have a giant fly swatter?" he asked.

"Baseball bat is about all I have for blunt force trauma." Buffy said.

"Remind me to get you a good, old fashioned, Morning Star. Three feet long with 4 pounds of spiked death on the end. With Slayer strength, it'll turn a vamp's head to goo and the rest to dust." Xander said. "For now, give me the bat. I'll buy you enough time to escape."

"What? I'm not leaving you." Buffy insisted.

"This guy came out of your neighbor's house, who you should check on tomorrow by the way, and he's wearing the same ring as the last guy that attacked _you_. Not me. These guys are after you. So you need to run to Giles' house and call in some backup."

"Mrs. Kalish?" Buffy whispered. Yet another body on her conscience.

"Buffy! Go!" Xander shouted, hearing footsteps on the stairs.

Buffy went to the window and stuck one leg out before looking back. "Don't you dare die on me, mister."

"Never." he promised. _**Dying f**__**or you**__ is another matter though,_ he said to himself as he got ready to fight.

* * *

"Angel." Dru mewed.

"Yeah, baby. I'm back." Angelus said.

Spike smirked. "Is it really true?"

"It's really true." Angelus answered.

"You've come home." Drusilla smiled.

"No more of this 'I've got a soul' crap?" Spike asked.

Angelus leaned back and lit a cigarette to prove that he really was evil. "What can I say, hmm? I was going through a phase."

"This is great! This is so great!" Spike said.

"Everything in my head is singing! We're family again. We'll feed. Grrr. And we'll play." Drusilla bounced between her monsters.

"I've got to tell you, it made me sick to my stomach seeing you being the Slayer's lap dog." Spike admitted.

Angelus growled and grabbed Spike by the shirt. Then he backed off and kissed him on the forehead, laughing.

"How did this happen?" Spike asked, laughing along.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Angelus assured him.

"Oh, who cares? What matters is now you're back! Now it's three against one, which are the kind of odds I like to play."

"Three on two." Angelus corrected. "Harris got turned, but kept his soul somehow too. Worse, he likes guns and is getting good with them."

"Who cares? We're immune." Spike assured him.

"You'll care, when he puts one between your eyes that puts you down more than long enough for him to stake you." Angelus tapped Spike's head hard.

Drusilla looked wistful. "Kitten is showing his claws."

"Well, before we go after the whelp, we have to get Dru her cure. Hopefully the Order of Taraka is taking care of the Slayer and her new pet vampire even as we speak." Spike said.

Angelus growled even louder this time and got in Spike's face again. "You sent the Order of Taraka after Buffy?"

Spike shoved him back. "Yeah, what's it to you?"

"Nothing." Angelus replied nonchalantly. "I just wanted to be the one to kill her is all. She made me _feel_."

"We still need the key." Drusilla reminded him.

Spike suddenly had an idea. "Do they know you're back? That bitch of a Slayer stole our key from us. Big golden cross."

Angelus growled at the thought. "I know it."

"Tell the wankers that you're going to hide it bloody thing. Bring it back here, and soon enough, we'll have Dru's cure!" Spike decided he was a genius for thinking up such a brilliant plan.

Drusilla clapped her hands at the wonderful idea. Her plans were coming along beautifully. Even now, her Kitten was absorbing memories of a vicious assassin. One small step closer to becoming her Tiger.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10.

Xander had only the vaguest of plans forming in his head at the time. Something to do with a bug zapper and the green transformer box at the corner of the street. All he had to do was lure bug boy there then blow the box. Simple. Right?

That all went out the door the moment Norman stepped into Buffy's room. Xander charged and smashed the guy's head into goo with his bat. Bugs and bug guts spattered all over Buffy's room. _She's going to make me __clean__ that__ up__,_ the thought raced unbidden through Xander's mind. Norman reformed a few inches shorter, but started growing as the bugs that were flung away but didn't die rejoined the body. Norman struck out with a hand that turned to meal worms as it hit Xander's. Then disintegrated.

Norman looked at his missing hand, then the small chunk that had been taken out of Xander, then the dead worms at Xander's feet.

"Guess I'm not edible for you, bug boy." Xander smirked. He was full of blood and his vampire healing was already healing the small chunk the worms had taken.

Norman said nothing, simply reformed his hand at the cost of another inch of height. Xander got one more good swing at him, before Norman disintegrated and the worms went in all directions. Leaving Xander standing in a disgusting pile of worm blood and guts. He couldn't help himself then, curiosity got the better of his good taste and he ate one of the worms trying to squirm away. It tasted terrible, and worse, there were no memories worth seeing. Norman knew nothing of the attack or who had ordered it.

* * *

Buffy raced hellbent for leather across Sunnydale. Luckily almost no one was out this late at night except a few demons she didn't even bother to slay. She skidded to a stop in front of Giles' door, ringing the doorbell with one hand and pounding with the other, all while looking over her shoulder to make sure no one was coming after her. Suddenly, the door fell away from her hand and she pounded on thin air.

"Buffy! What's wrong?" Giles quickly took in his Slayer's demeanor and appearance at this hour and surmised that there was trouble.

Buffy didn't bother with greetings, she just entered and locked the door behind her. She took a couple moments to catch her breath. "Angel's missing. I haven't seen him since last night." she started. "Xander and I looked all over town for him. We called it quits, I started walking home, then I was attacked." she showed Giles the bruises on her neck. Giles winced, he knew the force needed to bruise a Slayer was immense. "Xander got himself impaled on a tree branch, but he still managed to blow the guy's brains out before he killed me. So, we got him healed up, then he walked me home. I get home and can't even take a shower before we're attacked by a new guy. 'Made of bugs' was the way Xander described him. I don't know. I didn't see. Xander made me- Giles, I left him! I left him there to face that guy alone. Xander even said his guns didn't work on him and I left him!" she cried.

"There, there, now." Giles took his Slayer in his arms. Reminded that no matter how many demons she slew she was still a young girl. "Xander will be alright. He's very capable. I'm sure he wouldn't have sent you away unless he had a plan." he assured her as his Slayer soaked his nightshirt with her sobs.

Twenty minutes later, the doorbell rang again.

* * *

Xander wiped his bat off on Buffy's already ruined comforter. He'd mug a vamp for her if she was really cheesed off about it. He went downstairs and called Giles. He let the phone ring 5 times before he realized it was almost 4 AM, Giles _had been_ asleep, and Buffy probably wasn't to his house yet since the fight against bug boy hadn't taken as long as he thought it would. Though, at least Giles would be awake and up when she arrived.

He shouldered his bat and walked out the front door. Only to be met by two feet swinging down from the eaves and into his chest. As attacks went, it was surprising. He was knocked onto his back out of surprise not out of the shear force of the blow, though that was impressive for the slip of a girl in front of him.

She didn't say a word. Whoever these guys were, they weren't big on speaking. He thought about going for his guns for a second, but she was too close. And besides, the last two had been at least somewhat immune. He wanted more space between them before he started throwing lead.

Instead, he swung the bat at her legs to give himself room to jump to his feet. They danced around each other a bit, Xander always keeping the bat moving, using a technique he would normally employ for a mace, but adjusting it a bit for the lighter bat. _Every one of the girl's attacks were... batted away! Ha! _ Xander cracked himself up. But still, he was using the bat to keep her at bay, and she didn't seem to be showing any signs of pain at having absorbed many hard raps to her hands and arms, but she also wasn't charging in, wasn't willing to take a few hard hits to reach him, so they probably hurt enough.

As they fought through Buffy's house, Xander realized that the only one of these guys who had spoken had been a guy made of bugs. He wondered how that guy could even speak. He shouldn't even have vocal cords, being made of bugs and all. Then he realized he was wondering about something stupid like that in the middle of a fight to the death. He refocused on the fight and let out a laugh.

The girl jumped back. "What is so funny, vampire?" she asked with a Jamaican accent.

"First of all, my name's Xander, not vampire. And I was just thinking about the two guys they sent before you and how neither of them said much. In fact, the guy made of bugs said more than the human-ish guy. I was just wondering how a guy made of bugs could talk at all. Can you tell me that before we finish this?"

"I do not know. I've never seen dem before." she said.

Xander noticed her hands were ring-free. "What?" he shouldered his bat. "Then why the _hell_ are you attacking me?"

"You are a vampire. I am Kendra, dee Vampire Slayer." Kendra said.

"Huh." was all that Xander could manage at first. "What happened to _one_ girl in all the world?"

"There can be only one." Kendra insisted.

Xander broke out laughing yet again. "Please don't say those words in that order. Sorry. It's just too funny."

"I do not understand."

Xander waved her off. "Never mind. Tell you what, why don't we visit the watcher man and see what he says about having two Slayers? Then he can explain to you why Slaying the Xander would be a bad idea. Okay?"

Kendra hardened. "No. You are a vampire and are obviously lying. I will turn you into dust."

* * *

"Angel!" Buffy opened the door and flew into her lover's arms. "You're alright."

"Of course I'm alright. Why wouldn't I be?" Angelus said.

"Well, you disappeared after... And we looked for you but these guys attacked us." Buffy said.

"That reminds me. But first, can I come in?" Angelus asked.

"Yes, come in." Giles invited. Not liking it, but unable to do anything but invite the vampire in at the moment.

Angelus stepped inside with a small smile playing on his lips. "That's where I've been all night. Spike called in the Order of Taraka on you Buffy."

"The Order of Taraka? Are you sure?" Giles sank into a chair, his legs suddenly unsteady.

"Yeah, he's looking for this big cross that Buffy found the other night."

"The Du Lac Cross." Giles added for clarity.

"Yeah. Anyway, he wants it. We have to hide it." Angelus said.

Giles was lost in thought for a moment, chewing on the end of his glasses. "What? Yes, yes, of course. Hide it. You have an idea, I presume?"

"Yeah. The last place Spike will ever look." Angelus assured him.

Giles left to get the cross.

It was then Buffy's turn. "Why didn't you say anything when you left? You just took off."

"Yeah. Like I really wanted to stick around after that." Angelus made a face.

Buffy was shocked. "What?"

"You got a lot to learn about men, kiddo. Although I guess you proved that last night." Angelus taunted.

"What are you saying?" Buffy said.

"Let's not make an issue out of it, okay? In fact, let's not talk about it at all." Angelus replied.

"I, I don't understand. Was it m-me?" Buffy wondered.

Buffy never got her answer as Giles returned with a cross wrapped in a tweed jacket. "Will you be able to carry it like this?"

"Should be fine." Angelus assured him. Then turned to Buffy. "See ya around, kiddo." then left.

Buffy collapsed into Giles again. The watcher resigned himself to not getting any more sleep that night. One of the perils of the occupation.

* * *

Kendra attacked all out this time. Xander swung his bat and was pretty sure he heard a soft 'crack' when the bat met her forearm. And he could clearly see the deformation of the aluminum around that arm. He jumped backwards and to the side, behind the dining room table, piles of bills showing that it hadn't been dined on in a while. Kendra easily flipped the table over and out of the way. Then seeing the legs standing up so conveniently, she tore one off to make her own club.

"Would you stop tearing up my friend's house. Her mom is going to kill her and then she's going to kill both of us. Just as soon as we get this whole two-slayer mess straightened out." Xander begged.

Kendra didn't reply, instead she used her club to try to smack Xander. It didn't escape Xander's notice that Kendra wasn't really using her left arm, the one she had caught the bat on. He steeled himself to play dirty, but it was probably the only way to get them both out of this alive. He jabbed the arm with his bat eliciting a hiss of pain.

Next, he feinted the same move, then swung for the knee. Kendra brought her club down to block. But Xander was already swinging for his real target; with his speed, her strength didn't matter, she couldn't bring her table leg up to block in time. His bat connected with her head. Hard. She went down in a boneless heap. He kicked her weapon away, then stood over her, ready to put her down if she jumped up again, like he'd seen Buffy do so many times. But she didn't move. He had to listen closely to be sure that she was even still breathing. Blood started to trickle from under her head onto the papers scattered on the floor. Head wounds bleed a lot.

He poked her broken arm to be sure that she was really out, when there was no response, he dropped his bat and picked her unconscious body up. Moving as quickly as he could without jostling her head, he carried her to the emergency room. Just short of the hospital, Xander had to stop and compose himself. He forced himself to relax and allow his fangs to recede despite the delicious smell of blood in the air and on his arm.

Once at the hospital, the doctors and nurses set to work, first checking her neck for bite marks. Which, there were none, thank you very much. Then he spun a story about seeing her attacked by a gang on PCP, which the staff either bought or at least didn't question at any rate. When they were done with their questions, he left to go talk to Giles. Hoping the watcher would have some answers.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11.

Giles was not in a terribly great mood. It had been a long night, even if he had gotten _some_ sleep, unlike his Slayer. She and Xander had been attacked by no less than two Tarakan assassins during the night and then Xander had been attacked by a young woman claiming to be a Vampire Slayer. A phone call that night/early morning to the watchers council had caught them at afternoon tea. He didn't set a very good example for his Slayer then. The rudeness of the secretary at his interruption of tea had caused him to yell into the telephone until someone capable of telling him that 'yes, there really were two Slayers now'. And 'oh, sorry we forgot to tell you' came on. They also had absolutely no idea where the second Slayer was. Nor did they have any information on the Order of Taraka that he didn't already have.

So, now Giles found himself standing over the bed of a girl named Kendra. While his own Slayer slept in the nearby chair. He'd called himself and Buffy in sick that day. They both needed their rest after the last night.

"Zabuto?" the new Slayer moaned.

"Kendra?" Giles went to her side and took the arm not in a cast. "My name is Rupert Giles. I'm with the watchers council. Do you know where you are?"

Kendra took a quick look around. "A hospital. Am I still in Sunnydale?"

"Indeed. Sunnydale General Hospital." Giles confirmed.

"How did you find me?" she asked.

"Well, Xander to-"

"Dee vampire." Kendra spat, suddenly feeling much more awake. "He did dis to me. He is very dangerous, probably a Master. You must be careful."

A snicker came from the chair where Buffy was stretching. With Kendra focused on the girl, Giles took the opportunity to open the blinds and bathe the room in sunlight. If for no other reason than to prove that they weren't vampires. Buffy hopped up from her makeshift bed. "Xander, _the Master Vampire_, he'll love that." Buffy stepped to Kendra's side and held out her hand. "Hi. I'm Buffy. The Vampire Slayer."

Kendra looked to Giles. "Yes. I'm flummoxed as to how it happened, but I talked with the council already this morning and confirmed that there really are two Slayers. Why neither of us were told about the other... I don't know that answer either."

"Who cares how she got here, Giles? With those Maraca guys after me, I can use all the help I can get. Assuming you can get along with Angel and Xander."

"It's Taraka, Buffy. And I doubt that Kendra is going to be in any shape to be fighting for several days yet, even with her Slayer healing. Nor, do I think that she and Xander are likely to get along, any time soon."

"You truly work wit dat monster?" Kendra was horrified. "He nearly killed me. And-"

"And then he carried you almost a mile to the hospital." Giles cut her off. "Instead of killing you like a normal vampire would. Then he came and got us so we could stand guard while you healed. Now, according to Xander, you attacked him first. Yes?"

Kendra nodded. "But he is a vampire. You can't be fooled simply because he looks young. He is very strong and cunning."

Buffy was the one who answered. "October 31st. Less than a month ago. Xander and I went to class together. He likes French class during October because the sun hits him just right and makes him warm and sleepy." she said with a sad smile. "We went back to school to pick up the kids we were escorting for trick-or-treating. Xander didn't know it would be the last sunset he'd ever see or I'm sure he would have stopped to take it in. Then there was a spell. A lot of confusion, and Xander got turned. But something with the spell made him different. He's still my friend that I went to school with. Our friend, Willow, can tell you some funny stories about them growing up together. Except, they all make her kinda sad now..." Buffy trailed off.

"Thank you, Buffy." Giles said softly. "Yes, suffice to say that there is a whole group of demon hunters here in Sunnydale, and all of them knew Xander when he was human and agree that he is still the same man, despite needing blood to survive now."

Kendra looked rebellious. "Dee Slayer is supposed to work in secret."

"Unfortunately, the sheer volume of supernatural activity in Sunnydale has made that more or less impossible. Buffy's identity is still secret from most of the town." Giles defended. "Now, why don't you girls chat for a bit, while I go see the doctor about getting you out of here."

* * *

Jenny Calendar was near frantic with worry. Her uncle had stopped by that morning and given her terrible news. Their wise woman had said that Angel had lost his soul. Apparently there had been some vital information about Angel's curse that had been withheld from her. When she got to school, she found that Buffy and Giles had both been called in sick. The worrying part was that Buffy had been called in sick by her father. Jenny knew the Slayer's father was in LA and her mouth suddenly went dry with worry. Her mind played over her worst fears that Giles and Buffy had been captured by Angelus, who had called them in sick so they wouldn't be missed, and were being slowly tortured to death by the monster.

She set about looking for Willow, but couldn't find her. Her name hadn't even been on the career list, nor did she see the girl's red hair at any of the booths. She couldn't even find that prick, Ethan Rayne. Finally, she spotted someone from the group. Cordelia Chase was a stuck up bitch, but she knew the score and the kids sometimes relied on her for information or to pass on less vital messages.

"Cordelia. Have you seen Mr. Giles or any of the kids in his group?" Jenny asked.

"Well, let's see. Xander's been turned into a vampire and nobody told me." Cordelia ticked off on her fingers.

Jenny looked surreptitiously around at the mention of vampires, but no one was paying attention.

"I saw Willow today. She was crying because her name wasn't on the list." she smirked. "Buffy's a freak, so she's probably out saving the world or knocking over a bank, whichever she feels like today. And I don't keep track of Giles. But he's probably in the library somewhere." she finished ticking off her list.

"Here." Jenny handed her a slip of paper. "This is Xander's address. You're excused for the rest of the day. Go there and find out if he knows anything about Buffy's whereabouts. And get his telephone number while you're at it. I can't believe no one ever wrote down his number."

As she watched Cordelia go, she didn't even notice the red-headed officer that left at the same time.

* * *

Cordelia also didn't notice the person following her until she was already knocking on Xander's door. "Hey!" she yelled as a strong hand clasped her shoulder and something cold and hard pressed into her back.

* * *

Xander's apartment complex was very simple. (no pun intended) There were 13 apartments in the basement with a hallway down the middle, two doors to the outside world at either end, and no windows to be seen anywhere. Each apartment had four, 6 inch thick, concrete walls and similar floors and ceilings. Standard wood-stud walls separated the units into rooms, with the kitchen, bath, and laundry/mechanical being grouped together for ease of fittings. The in-unit laundry was another unique feature, as various demons and vampires didn't always mingle well together in a communal laundry room. So, in Xander's unit you entered a long dining/family room, there was a closet on the left, then an open kitchen and closed laundry room on your right. The last door on the right was the bedroom, which also led back into a bathroom right next to, but closed from, the laundry room.

Xander woke to a pounding on his front door and looked at the clock. Just after noon. Which was equivalent to midnight for him.

He rolled out of bed and blearily entered the living room. Then he remembered the events of the past night and went back to his room for a gun. He picked the 9mm with the silver bullets since silver bullets weren't technically illegal like his normal guns were. Weird and eccentric, but not illegal. The pounding escalated. "Yeah, yeah! I'm coming." he called. He checked the eye hole just to be sure no one was flooding the hallway with UV rays, but saw only Cordelia. And she didn't look nervous, she looked afraid. He had never seen Cordelia Chase afraid. She normally only had two emotions, haughty and annoyed. Suddenly, he too was afraid of whatever news of Buffy she was bringing.

"Cordy, what's wrong?" he asked as he opened the door. He stopped when he saw a police woman, who had been hiding behind the girl, was holding something against Cordelia's back. He doubted that it was a Popsicle.

"Hands up." she ordered. "And back into the room, slowly."

Xander did as he was ordered, pulling his hands up to his shoulders, but leaving his elbows down and relaxed. His gun was in the back of his waistband and he was hoping to keep that from view for when the cop... No, he noted her ring. ...for when the assassin made a mistake. He was suddenly relieved that he wasn't going to have to kill a real cop. And for the second time in less than a month, Xander found himself in another hostage situation. _Real cops usually didn't deal with two hostage situations in their careers, never mind a month,_ he reflected dryly. _And it wasn't usually the cops holding the hostages._ He noted with professional objectivity that she was holding a Beretta 92FS, the same gun he had hidden away. He wondered briefly if hers was loaded with special ammo. Though, as far as he knew, the anti-vampire ammo of Underworld was still fictional here.

The assassin closed and locked the door behind her without looking. "Where's Buffy Summers?" she demanded.

Cordelia turned to face her captor. "What's she done now?" Cordelia accused.

"She's wanted for questioning in several homicides last night." the assassin replied.

Xander couldn't help but snort. "You're not really trying to pull off the cop act after you shoved a gun in her back, are you?" He dropped his hands and stepped forward a bit. "Why don't you tell us why you're really here?" He really wished he could hint to Cordelia to step back or into the kitchen or anything to get her out of the line of fire. Then he could take this lady, no problem. Quite simply, he could take more damage than the assassin could and if they were using identical weapons, he was likely to win.

She raised her gun and pointed it at him. "_I said_, hands up. And get your ass on the couch while you're at it."

Xander raised his hands resignedly again and led Cordelia to the couch without turning around.

"Now, whichever of you tells me where Buffy Summers is, gets to live." the assassin said.

"Liar." Xander said. The assassin glared at him. He put his hands down again. "Can I put my hands down now? You're going to kill us anyway. Look... Actually, what do I call you?"

She hesitated for a second. "Patrice."

"Look, Patrice. Two of your Tarakan buddies already failed to kill Buffy last night." Xander said.

Patrice's wide-eyed look at that info would have been comical if she hadn't been holding a gun on them.

"And we're her friends. We're not going to tell you anything." Cordelia insisted. "So, you might as well just kill us."

Xander made a mental note to have a long talk with Cordelia about not taunting assassins and not giving them ideas about killing their hostages.

Patrice decided that that was very good advice indeed or maybe she just wanted to make an example of the snarky girl. She pointed her weapon at Cordelia and fired. Xander jumped to his left as best he could from a sitting start, trying to cover Cordy's body with his, while also pulling his own gun.

Patrice got away three shots before Xander, even with his vampire speed, could bring his gun to bear. At this distance, aiming wasn't an issue for either shooter. Quite frankly, if Patrice had known about Xander's gun, she wouldn't have engaged so close. As it was, all she could do was back away and keep pulling the trigger, hoping to throw his shots off. Unfortunately for her, Xander had been shot before. Or at least he remembered being shot before and continuing to do his job after that. And those memories were what allowed him to get on target this time, and once his first shot hit, Patrice's shots were the one's that started to go wide. And only a few seconds later, both of their guns stopped firing. Patrice fell to her knees, blood leaking from her mouth. She dropped her empty gun and tried to go for a full one, but Xander was up and with only a few steps, knocked her new gun away.

Patrice looked up at him, swallowing the blood in her mouth, and keeled over. Xander took a breath, then leaned over and bit her. Her memories being the best hope he had for stopping the threat to Buffy.

He drank greedily from his second human until she too was dead.

Once the threat was eliminated, he turned to see how Cordelia was doing. She was covered in blood, which was rarely a good sign for a human. He examined her quickly, at least five bullets had hit her. Worse, he'd been covering her at the time, so all of them passed through him first before hitting her. The smell of his own blood was heavy on her. He knelt down next to her.

"Xander." she begged softly. "Help me."

He shook his head sadly. "My vampirism is spread by a virus. You've already been infected, soon you'll either be dead, or like me."

Cordelia started crying in fear instead of pain. "I don't want to die." she confessed.

"Do you want to be a vampire?" Xander asked seriously.

"Will I still be me?" she asked. At the affirmative, she said, "I'll take it." as if she were ordering a dress.

"There's never been a controlled experiment to prove it, but there's a theory that more exposure, more blood, makes the transition more likely. Would you like to try it?"

"You mean...?"

"You drink my blood." he confirmed. "It seems to work for the other vamps."

Cordelia looked fearful, but nodded. Xander, pulled up his sleeve, then bit his wrist and held it to her lips. She hesitated a moment, then tentatively took it in her mouth. After she'd drank as much as she could without vomiting, he also spread some of his blood on her wounds. And then they waited. As Xander held her hand, he also went through Patrice's memories and found that she was as much in charge of the group of Tarakans as anyone was. She at least knew that a man named 'Spike' had hired them and she had driven the van that had brought the three assassins to Sunnydale. He also now knew the code word that would make sure no one else was sent after them.

As he meditated, Cordelia's breathing got shallower and shallower. Alexander had never turned someone (to his knowledge) and everything Xander had done had been guesswork from what Alexander knew, what Xander knew, and from the movies.

Ten minutes later, Cordelia gave a gasp and grabbed him with the incredible strength of the dying. "Xander Harris, if I die, I'm going to haunt you forever." she promised before going into convulsions. She herked and jerked and convulsed in a grand mal seizure for over a minute. She calmed for a moment, then gasped again and sat up. Her blue eyes shining and her fangs sparkling in the dim light of the apartment.

"I'm alive." she breathed.

* * *

_Omake_: (Xander started to get a little bit too Super!Xander the first time I wrote this)

"Look, Patrice. There's only one way out of this for you. Put your guns down and tell us who hired you to kill Buffy and I promise to kill you quickly." Xander said.

Patrice's eyes narrowed at the threat. "You're not in a position to make threats, boy."

Cordelia started to make a snarky comeback, but Xander cut her off and physically placed his arm across her chest, partially covering her body. "What ever your employers told you about your target pales in comparison to what they didn't tell you. Buffy has friends. Dangerous friends. Like me. Now, I've never been an expert at torturing _humans_," he emphasized the word, "but I can assure you that the next day or so of your life will be so horrible that...


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12.

Xander finished giving her a summary of all the things he'd learned about being a vampire in the last month. "So, best not to leave here until sunset, which is our 'morning' now. Speaking of which, why are you here?" Patrice's memories on that point hadn't been clear, she'd been looking for Buffy, had heard Buffy's name and that Cordelia had been going to find her, so she followed.

"Oh yeah. Ms. Calendar wants you to call her, and let her know that Buffy's alright. And she wants your phone number." Cordelia informed him. She didn't bother to ask if Buffy was alright because she too was going through Xander's memories and could see she was. Though, not all of the memories were pleasant. "And by the way, you are never allowed to jack off while thinking of me again." she shuddered. "Dear god. The number of times you've whacked it since you turned 12, I'm surprised the damn thing is still attached." She got to see fantasies of her, Buffy, and several of their teachers. Sometimes all at once. But never Willow, poor girl – the way she pined for him.

Xander blushed. "There's a bathroom through my bedroom there if you want to clean off some of the blood. Don't change your clothes yet though, we still have to do something with the body." He looked around the room at the bloody carnage of his apartment. That reminded him that he needed to get at least some Kevlar vests for them at the very least. They now both carried some very deadly blood-borne pathogens and they needed to take steps to protect their friends. The memories from the assassins told him that Cordelia would probably have survived her injuries if she gotten to a hospital within 30 minutes. Except that Xander had unintentionally infected her. He wondered how long it would be before she figured that fact out and they had a good row over it. For now, she just seemed happy to be alive.

Cordelia followed his vacant gaze. "Are you sure the cops aren't going to be here soon? The real cops?"

"Thick, concrete walls, plus no one here wants the police within a hundred feet of this place. We're safe. And she is- was a cop. LAPD. Outside her jurisdiction and no one knows she's here. But it means we have to be careful disposing of the body." Xander really wished that Sunnydale had a crematorium. But no. Six funeral parlors, but nowhere to legally burn a body.

"So what do we do?" Cordy asked.

"First, you get your own starter set of weapons. This Beretta is nice. And a couple backups. Hmm... and it looks like she already filed the serial numbers off for us. Convenient." Xander handed over Patrice's weapons.

Cordelia picked up the gun and memories flashed through her mind. Xander's memories of practicing with guns just like this. She ejected the spent magazine and loaded a new one from Patrice's belt. She thumbed the lever to close the slide as if she'd done it a hundred times before. "Don't want to be unarmed if anyone comes knocking." she explained.

It was a valid point. Just not one that Xander had been expecting to come from Cordelia Chase. "Next, we dismember her, then in the morning we take her to some demons I know. They eat most of her and we dump the remains. It gets reported as a wild animal attack."

"You know human-eating demons?" it didn't even surprise her. Heck, she knew bits and pieces about them too.

"I've warned them that I'll kill them if I ever see them out hunting." Xander said.

"Fine. But first you need to call Ms. Calendar before she freaks out any more about why I'm taking so long." Cordelia ordered.

* * *

Jenny was relieved to finally hear from Xander. She'd been starting to think that Cordelia had gotten lost. Instead her blood had run cold when he told her about the Tarakan assassin that followed Cordelia, looking for Buffy. And worse, Cordelia had been infected by his blood and was now a vampire, but like Xander. With a soul... or as much of one as the girl had at any rate. But it was with a trembling hand that she set down the phone. She had cost Cordelia Chase her life. Or her life as she knew it at least, which was much the same to the girl. Jenny knew that Xander had adapted, but she also knew that the boy was made of stronger stuff than the spoiled cheerleader. She definitely did not envy Xander right now.

She picked the phone back up to call Rupert at the hospital.

* * *

Drusilla spun and twirled as the stars sang to her while her boys slept. They were wonderful family. Strong and full of evil love. But they could never stop bickering and it tore at the place her soul had been every time they fought. Leaving great gashes on her insides.

Her Kitten was was growing up and sharpening his claws. He'd killed two more humans and even drained an assassin dry. He'd absorbed the memories of three of the world's most evil assassins in under 24 hours, just as she'd planned. And those naughty assassin memories would start working on her Kitten more than he'd think possible. And bringing him step by step, closer to her. Kitten's dark mother.

Soon, she'd have a new family. A family of Tigers. With Drusilla as their mother.

* * *

Xander and Cordelia walked down the streets of Sunnydale carrying black trash-bags full of human remains and nobody even looked at them twice. After they'd dismembered and bagged the remains, they each took their turn in the shower. Cordelia was now wearing some of Xander's clothing. Something she didn't think she'd ever be doing. But she didn't want to be seen where they were going in her normal, impeccable clothing anyway. Especially as they might get blood on their clothes again during the disposal. She'd go home later that night and pick up some clothing for the rest of the week. She already knew that Xander would be sleeping on the blood soaked sofa that night.

They brought the remains to a bar called Willy's and went into the back room where Xander knew some demons that liked eating people.

"Joe! Glad to see you!" Xander said a little too cheerfully.

"Whatdaya want, Xander?" the purple demon asked rudely.

"Got a snack for you. Thought you might be interested." Xander waved to the bags.

Cordelia could clearly smell the blood inside them, though she wasn't sure how vampire senses compared to other demons.

"And your friend, the Slayer, isn't going to mind?" the demon checked.

"Nope."

"Fine, but it's going to cost you." Joe said.

"Like what? I'm doing you a favor bringing you down a fresh snack." Xander said.

"I want a pass from the Slayer. I get to kill someone, no questions asked." Joe said.

Xander shook his head. "It doesn't work that way. You can take your snack or leave it. But you don't get any passes from Buffy."

Joe smirked, at least it looked like a smirk. "Well, then. Maybe the police are already searching for this guy. Suppose they start asking some questions?"

Xander didn't hesitate. He drew his silenced gun and put two in Joe's chest at point-blank range. Then, stood over Joe's body and put two more in his head. "Any one else think that going to the cops about this is a good idea?" Xander asked the rest of the demons present; his gun still out, but down by his side. When everyone had shaken their heads 'no', he put his gun away. "Just to clarify, I'm not going to shoot anyone for refusing to eat the person we brought. But threatening us is just not cool, capiche?" When it was clear that everyone understood and was relaxing a bit, he went on. "Now, is there anyone who does want a nice, human snack. The snack is it's own reward."

Two demons tentatively raised their hands and Xander started handing out body parts. Cordelia decided she didn't want to watch demons eating a human, even the one that had essentially murdered her, eaten. So she went to the bar and ordered a glass of B-neg on Xander's tab. After being hit on by several demons even smellier than they were ugly, she decided that watching a human being eaten wasn't so bad.

* * *

Walking back to their apartment from picking up some clothes at Cordelia's house, They came upon a woman being attacked by a vampire. Xander initially went for his silenced gun, but then a nagging feeling stopped him. Instead, he stepped behind the vamp and twisted its head until the bones went Crack, and it fell. Xander immediately started robbing his victim, ignoring the woman it had been attacking.

After taking his earnings and dusting his foe, he looked up at the girl and smiled. His vampiric visage doing nothing to allay her nerves. He had to admit, it was a little thrilling – the fear he could cause just by looking at someone.

Cordelia came up behind him. "Say. That's a nice jacket." she complimented the woman's very expensive designer leather coat. The mild excitement turning her eyes just as ice blue as Xander's. She had to be sure to enunciate clearly around her new fangs.

"Here. Take it." the woman quickly stripped off the jacket and tossed it to Cordelia who tried it on.

"And just my size too." Put on the jacket and turned to Xander. "What do you think?" she showed it off to Xander.

"It's nice." Xander said. It was nice of the woman to give Cordy her jacket. After all, he'd just saved her life. It was a small price to pay. "Let's go. We still have to pack up my stuff to move into a new apartment."

"We're not staying in your place?" Cordelia wondered.

"Not unless _you're_ sleeping on the blood soaked couch." Xander smirked. "There are some two bedroom places in the same hall. We'll just evict one of the neighbors."

From the shadows, Drusilla smiled and watched the woman run away shivering in the somewhat chilly winter air. Sure, it was a small thing, just a piece of leather. But the corruption it promised was so much greater than the sum of its parts. "Hello, Kitten." she mewed.

The other vampires stopped.

Xander turned to face her. "Hello Drusilla. What do you want?" The vampiress had yet to attack him, in fact, she always seemed downright friendly to him. He honestly didn't know if he wanted to kill her or just ignore her. Mostly he just wanted her to go away so he could get packed before the meeting at the library.

"You defeated the assassins, three." she singsonged, then stopped. In a perfectly normal voice she said, "Well, except for the bug-thing; you defeated, but didn't kill him." She switched back to her sing-song voice, "But you can still defeat him and save your Slayer. I can tell you how, where, and when."

Xander was willing to reasonably negotiate an end to the Tarakan threat. "And your price?"

"The second Slayer. I want you to drain her dry." Drusilla smiled wickedly.

Xander didn't say anything. He didn't say 'no' either.

* * *

This was certainly the largest and tensest Scooby meeting ever.

Giles sat with Kendra off to one side as she refused to associate with the two vampires in the room.

Jenny refused to sit anywhere but at Cordelia's side, apologizing profusely to the girl; and was glaring at Kendra for her treatment of the vampires.

Buffy and Willow were glaring at Jenny. Buffy was angry that information on her boyfriend had been withheld and Willow was sympathetically angry for her best friend.

Giles looked uncomfortably between Jenny and his Slayer.

"You're telling me that the way to release Angel's soul was a moment of happiness? What kind of stupid rule is that?" Buffy asked rhetorically, not waiting for an answer. "And that means that not only did we let this new version of Angel into Giles' house, we even gave him that cross thingy. Which means they now have the key to Drusilla's cure."

"Buffy, are you su-" Giles was cut off by a very angry glare. She was sure.

"If your clan cursed Angelus, did you also curse dese two?" Kendra wondered.

"We're not vampires like you know. We're from-" Cordelia was cut off by an elbow to the ribs from Xander.

"Vampires that we hunt are demonic. There's no demon in these two." Buffy said. "They're not Vampires. They're... They're Xanpires!"

Cordelia stood up angrily, her eyes flashing and her fangs emerging. "I am _not_ being labeled a Xanpire!" she said, thankful she hadn't thought up the snarky name before she'd been turned or it just might have stuck. She turned to sit back down and found that Xander had also stood up and placed himself between her and a very agitated Jamaican Slayer, who was also standing and glaring at her.

Giles cleared his throat. "Cordelia, if you wouldn't mind keeping your temper in check. Your sudden jumping up with your fangs extended is agitating to Kendra, who is not used to having 'friendly' vampires. Kendra, please try to relax and think of them as... allies."

"Allies who might turn against us if dey become too happy?" Kendra looked at the gypsy.

"No. There's no curse on them. They are here of their own free will." Giles informed her. "Now, we have to discuss how to stop the ritual to cure Drusilla. Kendra and I discovered that it must be done in a church on the night of the new moon, so we have only two more nights, assuming they are able to decipher and translate it by then."

"Don't forget about the second assassin. He's still out there too." Xander added.

"I thought you defeated him." Giles said.

"Defeated, not killed." Xander said sadly.

"Yeah, and tha-" Cordelia was cut off by another elbow from Xander. She glared at him to stop elbowing her and he glared back to stop over-sharing.

* * *

A/N: Credit to EroSlackerMicha for thinking up the name Xanpires!

A/N: Thank you to Greywizard for the idea about Cordy taking a leather jacket. Though, I changed the idea just a bit here. Cordelia isn't evil. Just unempathetic.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13.

"Okay. What the hell? Why aren't we telling your friends about your freaky-deaky vampire girlfriend?" Cordelia asked.

"Gosh, Cor. I didn't know you were my girlfriend." Xander snarked.

"Not me, dumbass. The demonic vamp who called you her Kitten. What's up with that?" Cordelia asked.

"Her name is Drusilla and Giles says she's crazy." Xander said as he finished packing the last box of clothing. Cordelia was busy using bleach to destroy any DNA that might still be around. Both his and Patrice's.

"I'd have to agree. Calling you Kitten? I think I'd have noticed the whiskers and mocked them by now." Cordy snarked. "Wait. Isn't that the vampire Spike is trying to 'cure'? She looked fine to me."

"I know. Maybe it's to cure her from being crazy?" Xander guessed.

"And so why didn't we tell them we met her and she looks fine?" Cordelia asked. "Or better yet, why didn't you just dust her?"

"We didn't tell them because then they'll ask what she wanted. And we'll have to tell them about her offer. And I don't see Kendra taking that well."

"Yeah, even if you _had_ turned the crazy vamp down." Cordelia raised an eyebrow.

"Kendra attacked me first. Okay? And you saw how she looked at me. I'm not _planning_ on killing her, but if it comes down to her or Buffy, I'm choosing Buffy." Xander informed her. "And I don't know why I didn't dust her. Mostly because she's never attacked me. Which puts her one up on Kendra in that department."

* * *

"It says it needs the blood of her sire. So it's been nice knowing you." Spike grinned.

"It says it needs the blood of her sired. You conjugated the Latin wrong." Angelus sneered.

"Did not. You take that back you bog-jumper." Spike insisted.

"Did so, you Sassenach." Angelus said.

"Bloody Mick."

"Pommy."

"Paddy."

"Limey bastard."

"Sid." Spike smirked. The abbreviation for 'Small Irish Dick' was sure to get a rise. Even if it was just a small one.

"Oh that's it." Angelus punched Spike and the fight was on.

Drusilla sighed and turned away from her doggies. She wondered if her Kitten would be ready in time. She would have to make other plans if he wasn't.

* * *

Xander and Cordy sat around for a couple hours just waiting for sunrise to drive their neighbors back into their lairs. Then they waited an extra hour to be sure everyone was likely back. They didn't want to have any unexpected visitors while they were getting settled.

Xander palmed a stake and knocked on the door. He had to knock several more times before someone answered.

"You 'ad be'er 'ave food or you're goin' ta _be_ food." the vamp that answered growled in a Cockney accent.

Xander didn't even give a greeting, he just plunged his stake into the vamp and stepped through the settling dust.

"Oi! W'o was zat?" another English accent greeted them. Xander went into the room where the voice was and had a brief tussle with the sleepy occupant before coming back out. While they were fighting, Cordelia kept her gun on the other bedroom. Once Xander was done in one bedroom, he checked the one Cordelia had been covering. But apparently, there were only the two vamps living here.

The two bedroom apartment was slightly different than Xander's old one. The living room was slightly wider and shorter. The kitchen was on one side with the bathroom and laundry on the other and the bedrooms on opposite sides of the living room as well.

"Come on." Xander said. "Let's get the humidifiers set up before anyone else comes in." As they packed up the vamps' stuff, they found their stash of money, and also the keys not only to the apartment, but also to a car.

All in all, it had been a very long night and both vampires collapsed into sleep after the bear-minimum of work was done.

* * *

"...and when I woke up, he was gone." Cordelia finished telling the group that Xander was missing. "Oh, gosh. You don't think Angelus got him, do you?"

"I doubt it. You still have those holy-water humidifiers, right?" Giles asked. He and Xander had jointly brainstormed that idea and if only the moisture wouldn't affect his books, he'd have already set them up both in the library and at his home. Though at his flat, he was busy moving his books to the spare bedroom, where he would set up a dehumidifier and could then place a holy-water humidifier at the front door. He was also researching a de-invitation spell.

"First thing we set up in the new apartment." Cordelia confirmed. Giles gave her a look. "Oh, didn't I mention that we moved across the hall to a two bedroom apartment? More room and no blood from a recent shootout." she gave Giles the number to the new place, which had luckily been written on the phone there.

"Perhaps he also went evil." Kendra scowled.

"Xander would never do that!" Willow defended.

"Like Angelus would never do dat?" Kendra prodded.

It was Cordelia's turn to jump up. "Listen, little miss Slayer. Xander's a dork. But he's a good dork and he's not about to go murdering innocent people."

* * *

Xander was most assuredly not murdering innocent people at that time. The people he was murdering were far from innocent. They were the reason he had been forced to wear long sleeved shirts almost every day he was in school, to hide the bruises.

As he'd slept that day, the memories he'd absorbed from the assassins had shown him things. Truths about the ways of the world that he'd never thought possible. He'd felt an anger at the world that he'd never felt before and he was almost helpless to control it. The one thing he managed to do was to leave without waking Cordy for fear that he might turn that anger on her. When he really wanted to turn that anger on those that deserved it. Those that caused it.

And now they were dead. He thought he'd feel good after he killed them, but he mostly felt full. (and slightly tipsy) Two full grown humans have a lot of blood to drink, even if theirs was slightly thinned by alcohol. The one thing he didn't feel was bad or guilty. He knew he was supposed to. But he felt nothing. Just a realization that he couldn't go back. Buffy, with her holier than thou attitude, wouldn't accept him and Kendra... Kendra would slay him on sight. Willow, well he didn't think it would be safe for her to be around him right now. He had rarely been the cause of Tony's anger, just the recipient and he didn't want to repeat that with Willow as the new victim. After all, look what he'd already done to Cordelia.

He wondered where he would go now. He was well and truly on his own for the first time in his life.

He heard the front door open and smiled. He should have known she'd be watching.

"And now my little Kitten has become a true Tiger. Come, my pet." Drusilla said. "We have work to do and moonlight is fading fast."

* * *

"Both of you, sit down. Kendra, you are still injured. Please try to stay calm so you can heal." then Giles turned to Cordelia. "And you, stop antagonizing the Slayer. Even injured, Kendra would tear you apart."

"What? But I'm like Xander!" Cordelia defended.

"Xanpire." Buffy whispered to Willow.

"The spell that turned Xander gave him a boost to his fighting skills and it still took him several weeks to get back near what he was during the spell. You have no such boosts, and from what I have seen of your speed, you are below Xander's level of athleticism." Giles said. Both Slayers nodded in agreement with his assessment. "Now, with a weapon to keep a Slayer at bay, his speed could be deadly to any Slayer, if he chose." Giles gave a pointed look to Kendra then turned back. "But hand-to-hand, the strength advantage goes to the Slayers. They would tear you apart. Possibly literally." He gave another look at Kendra.

Kendra didn't look at the watcher, she just grinned at the vampire at those words.

"You need training." Giles finished.

"So train me already." Cordelia said.

That elicited a great deal of sputtering from Giles and a derisive snort from Kendra. "Are you mad? Train a vampire!?" Giles said once he recovered. "The council would have me deported in an instant. They're only grudgingly accepting of civilians helping the Slayer, mostly because I've insisted that the problem here is too big to tackle alone. They haven't objected to having vampires helping, mostly because I doubt they've read my reports carefully enough to see that first Angel and then Xander was helping after he was turned." he shook his head. For once the snail's pace that information filtered through the council was helping him. Though he wondered how long that would last once Kendra reported back. "So, no. The answer is emphatically no. I will not be training you."

"Well, can't I just bite someone? I bet Xander got some mad skills from biting all those assassins." Cordelia asked.

"What did you say?" Giles said.

"What? Just a little bite. I wasn't going to kill anyone. But I got some memories from when Xander turned me. Mostly him being a horny little perv, not the most useful-"

"No. About the assassins." Giles interrupted. He didn't want to know what personal memories they'd shared. In fact, he very much did _n__o__t_ want to know.

"Oh, he said he got some memories from them. The first guy had some tracking skills, the bug man didn't have much and tasted horrible, and the gun lady didn't have anything he didn't already have. He drained her dry." Cordelia looked at Kendra. "But that was _good_. Because she was an assassin and trying to kill me. Oh yeah, and Buffy too. And he needed the blood so he could turn me and keep me alive after she shot me."

"I thought he didn't kill the, uh... bug-man." Giles said.

"No. But Xander said he was a good foot shorter when he left than when he started. Plus he left a bunch of bugs behind. I think Xander ate one of those. Or some of the bug blood splattered around Buffy's room." Cordy said.

Buffy nodded. "It was a mess. Actually, the whole house was a mess. Willow and I skipped today's Career Week presentation to clean up after Kendra's fight." Buffy glared at the other Slayer who, though injured, hadn't helped clean up her own mess. Buffy had had to clean up her own messes when she was injured. Plus she had to dip into her shoe-fund to buy a new table exactly like the one Kendra had broken. Not to mention the bills that had gotten blood on them. Again she'd had to dip into her shoe fund to pay those bills with blood on them so her mom wouldn't notice. She was still working on explaining how she got that kind of money without saying she was some kind of drug dealer. Actually, right now telling her mother that she was a drug dealer would explain most of the weirdness in her life. Which would be great except for the possible jail time.

Giles sighed. "Xander drank the blood of three of the most vicious assassins in history and nobody mentioned it." He stood up to get his books and locked himself in his office.

All the children looked slightly guilty, even Willow who hadn't even known.

"So, Kendra. You're from Jamaica. Any good malls there?" Cordelia asked. She poured on all the Cordelia Chase charm she normally reserved for the rich, influential, or in this case – those who could and also _wanted_ to kill her.

* * *

A/N: If you go back and watch the early seasons, you will see that Xander really did wear a lot of long sleeved shirts. We saw his forearms briefly in S1E1. Some were uglier than others though I wouldn't call any of them Hawaiian. I don't think those came out until after he moved out of his parent's house. I choose to draw certain conclusions from the fact that he wore long sleeved shirts in the warmth of sunny California all the while he was living with his parents.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14.

"I think I've got something." Giles said as he came out of his office. "There's another watchers council. The original watchers, depending on who you ask. But they don't interfere with their charges. Now, to give you the most basic information, their charges are biologically immortal but not vampires. I have some theories about that based on the likely birthdates of those Immortals we know the birthda... and you don't care." he realized. "Moving on. When these Immortals win a battle with each other, the victor gains a Quickening, basically all the knowledge and power of his foe. Is that what you experienced?"

"I don't know. I've never fed on anyone besides Xander. But I don't think I got _all_ of his knowledge. Even Xander's only fed on what...? Four, if you count bug-boy." Cordelia said, then added at Kendra. "And they were all trying to kill us."

"Well, there's a legend among them of something called a Dark Quickening. Basically, an Immortal takes in so many evil Quickenings total, or so many in a short period of time, that he – himself – becomes evil." Giles finished.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Giles, backup. I thought we were going with Xander is missing, not Xander is evil." Buffy said.

"Yeah. I mean even if that Drusilla called him her Kitten, that doesn't make him evil, right?" Cordy added.

All sound in the library stopped. "Wait... _W__hat_?" Buffy asked.

"Oops. I wasn't supposed to tell you guys that." Cordelia cringed.

"I'm afraid I'll have to insist." Giles said. Kendra nodded, cracking her knuckles for emphasis.

"No, big. We were walking home after saving this woman from a vamp and she steps out of the shadows and starts purring and calling him Kitten. Drusilla, not the woman. Anyway, she offered to tell us where the bug-guy was hiding." Cordelia said.

"And why didn't you volunteer this information before? Might that be where Xander is now?" Giles asked.

Cordy shook her head. "I doubt it. For the same reason we didn't say anything about her. In exchange for bug-boy, she wanted Xander to kill Kendra. And since _she's_ not dead, I'm going with he's not with bug-boy."

Willow, who had moved to the computer while Giles was researching, then spoke up. "Guys. You may wanna read this. Husband and wife killed by wild animals in their home. It's Xander's parents."

* * *

"Angel! You don't write, you don't call. It's like you broke up with me." Xander snarked as he followed Drusilla into her lair.

"Oi! What the _bloody_ hell, pet!?" Spike yelled. "Why you bringing this bloody wanker into our home!?"

"Shush now, Spike. You're scaring Ms. Edith." Drusilla mewed.

"Harris." Angelus stepped up into Xander's face.

"Angelus." Xander stood face to face with him.

Suddenly, the two embraced, laughing.

"Haha! How's it feel to be evil?" Angelus asked as he pulled away.

"Freeing." Xander said. "I killed my parents. I've been wanting to do that for a while now."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Killing my father is still the kill I remember the most fondly. Here, have a cigarette, that's how people know that we're really evil. Only evil people smoke nowadays." Angelus said.

"Don't mind if I do." Xander took the smoke and took a deep puff. "Wow, these are really good. I wish I'd gone evil sooner just so I could smoke."

"Freeing, innit?" Angelus smiled.

"Oi! Somebody better start ans- Ahh!" Spike went down clutching the knee that Xander had shot.

"Naughty Tiger!" Drusilla waved her finger at him disapprovingly. "Mustn't scratch."

"Sorry, Dru. He was being annoying." Xander shrugged and blew a breath of smoke across the still smoking barrel of his silencer, mixing the smells of tobacco and cordite in the air. He then put the gun back in the shoulder holster.

"Wow, Dru. You were right about your Kitten turning into a Tiger." Angelus complimented. "Come on kid, let's get your opinion on this translation we've been working on."

Spike was left in the common room, putting pressure on his wound until it stopped bleeding enough for him to hobble to the fridge to get some nasty pig's blood to speed his healing.

* * *

Spike limped into town. He'd never had this feeling of being cast off since he'd been turned, but he remembered it well enough from being human. Dru had found someone new. The bloody blue-eyed wanker. Blue eyes, just like her beautiful blue eyes. It made him want to cry and that was just un-demony of him.

Somehow his feet carried him to the high school. He considered suicide by Slayer. But that was undignified for someone like him, a vampire with two Slayers under his belt. He knew from trying to get Dru's cure where the library was and could see lights on there. Bloody wankers were probably wondering where their bloody wanker friend was. And he suddenly had an idea. Close enough to suicide it was. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

* * *

Walking into the library got him just the kind of scared/startled response he wanted. Except then he was attacked by the Slayer, a vampire chick who looked like Harris, and another bird who was almost as strong as a Slayer. Luckily for him, the vamp-chick wasn't a very good fighter and mostly got in the way. In fact, he finally took her prisoner and got to call time-out with that. "Just time-out. Okay. I didn't come here for a fight." he said.

"Coulda fooled me." the Slayer replied.

"Den why did you come here?" the other girl asked.

"Want to make a deal with the Slayer." he said, nodding to Buffy.

"Let Cordelia go first." Buffy ordered.

"If I do, can we talk?"

Buffy nodded. "Fine."

He let her go and she immediately ran into the arms of some Romany bint.

The black girl tried to attack him then in violation of their cease fire, but Buffy intervened by pulling her back by her hair. "Down girl. I said he could talk."

Spike smirked. "Well aren't you all tough an' in charge?" at a look, he got to his point. "Right. Dru's got your boys. Angel and Harris. Looking to replace me is what I figure."

"Well, boohoo. If that's all you got, I'm going to stake you just for wasting my time." Buffy threatened.

"Of course that's not all. Tomorrow night, they're doing the spell thing to fix Dru. Only I'm not sure any more she needs fixing with what she's been doing while I've been trying to help her. Anyway, it needs either her sire or her sired. We disagreed on how to conjugate the Latin. Anyway, I'm pretty sure Angelus is planning on sacrificing me."

"And you can't get him first?"

"He's got over a century on me, luv. And now he's got Harris as backup, who already shot me in the bloody leg. Look at these trousers, they're ruined. And the two of them are getting along like pigs in shit." Willow 'eeped' at the swear word. Spike noticed her for the first time and leered. "Stick around luv, I'll teach you all sorts of dirty words."

"So, what's the deal?" Buffy interrupted his flirting.

"I tell you when and where the spells taking place, you come get your boys, and me and Dru leave your town. Never to return." Spike offered.

"Giles, can we bring them back? The real them? Xander and Angel?" Buffy looked to her watcher, her eyes pleading.

Giles scratched his head. "There's only been one confirmed instance of a Dark Quickening. That was by an Immortal widely acknowledged to be a powerful force of good. He did come back, but I don't have information on how. I've left two messages with his watcher and with that branch of watchers. Even then, we can't be sure this is the same. It's only a theory."

"I'll contact my tribe and see if we can re-curse Angel." Jenny offered.

Spike chuckled. "Thought you were a Romany. Figured the rest of us killed off that tribe after what you did to Angelus. Guess a couple escaped." he taunted.

"Maybe we'll see if we can curse you too this time." Jenny said with a smirk she didn't feel. What she really wanted to do was run in terror.

But her words had their intended effect. The smirk disappeared from Spike's face. "You wouldn't."

"Double cross us, and you can count on it." Jenny suddenly felt much better now that she had something he was clearly scared of.

"Tell us where and when this is going down. We'll be there." Buffy promised.

"And Dru and I walk?" Spike confirmed.

"You and Drusilla walk." Buffy confirmed and Spike gave her the information then left.

Once Spike was far enough away Buffy turned to Kendra. "Are you going to be up for a fight by tomorrow?" at a nod, she went on. "Good, because if we can't find a way to bring Angel and Xander back by then, I want you to kill Spike and Drusilla."

Kendra suddenly looked much, much happier.

* * *

Killing an assassin wasn't, strictly speaking, an evil thing to do. Though Xander decided that the betrayal of one evil being of another was evil enough for him. Angelus was planning on betraying Spike but had no idea what Drusilla had planned for him. Not that he planned on telling him. Not after losing his virginity to the seer. He rather liked the method of coercion she used on him.

What might be called evil was the way in which they were killing him. After having the... thing stand in a large, metal tub; all three vampires doused the bugs with high-proof alcohol. Then the two that were weak against fire stood back while Xander lit the guy on fire. The popping sound of each bug exploding reminded him of a demonic microwave popcorn. And though his humanish face never showed it, Xander was pretty sure that the bug-guy died in extreme agony.

Even the remnants of what he thought of as good-Xander had no objection to this, so he could sit back and watch the thing burn in peace.

* * *

A/N: References to Highlander. Not crossover with that, but I do not own.

A/N: Smoking and evil. I don't know if many people noticed my earlier reference, so I decided to hit you over the head with it this time. Angel did not, but Angelus did; Spike smoked through the series, even after he got his soul, but he was never 'good' just 'reformed-evil'; Faith smoked at least some, though I'm sure we never saw it until she 'went bad'.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15. Wherein we finally see the method to Drusilla's madness

Giles pulled aside the three girls. Kendra had found some comfortable beanbag chairs to sleep on and Jenny was still on the phone yapping away in the Gypsy language. "I received a call back from the other watchers." he held up a hand to forbear interruptions. "There have been two instances of Dark Quickenings in living memory. Warriors for Good who absorbed too much Evil and... broke. For lack of a better term. Both did eventually come back, but they were never completely the same. And in both cases, it took their friends' support and encouragement to due so." He swallowed before delivering the next part. "And not all of those friends survived. The evil inside Xander may no longer recognize you as friends. And if he kills you and then regains himself, he'll have to live with that guilt forever."

"We'll do it. Whatever it takes to bring Xander back." Buffy asserted.

"Xander would do it for us." Willow echoed.

Giles' throat was tight. He hadn't really expected anything else from them, but he'd hoped. This would be very dangerous. And it was a danger he couldn't protect them from or even prepare them properly for.

* * *

"Seriously. I'm still full from last night." Xander pushed away his food. "I mean, I got 2 or 3 liters out of each of my parents. Human male capacity is around 5 liters. So, yeah. I'm still full." He pushed the girl back to Drusilla. Five liters was human capacity; he wondered if his might be a bit more than that, perhaps storing some in his stomach. He had drank a lot that night.

The poor girl was seriously freaked, as any reasonable person should be on meeting their first vampire. Still, she was very beautiful. Blonde haired and blue eyed. But a weird name he didn't even bother trying to remember. Chanticleer?

"You don't have to feed, Kitten. Just bite her." Drusilla said. "She _wants_ to be turned." and pushed the food back.

"All the more reason not to turn her. She obviously has a screw loose somewhere. You turn her. Or get Spike to do it. What happened to him?" Xander said.

"You shot him. Naughty kitten. He did run away, he did. But don't worry, he'll be back in time for my party." Dru smiled and decided that she wasn't going to get her Kitten to feed today. She drained the girl instead. She needed her strength for what she had to do later. Hypnotism took so much out of her right now. She could barely control the minions she was going to need to pull off her plans tonight. But after her party, she'd be strong. Strong enough to control a full grown Tiger. And an army of vampires who knew what Kitten knew about guns and were immune to everything but sunlight could take over the world. Plus, Kitten just had to bite people to turn them instead of draining his own blood. With him under her control, they could kill or turn all of Sunnydale in just a few nights.

After she was done with her food, she passed her food to Xander, who quickly broke the girl's neck.

* * *

"Huh, I guess she really _is_ sick." Xander said as they stood over Dru's bed.

"From what Spike said, it comes and it goes." Angelus replied. "Where the hell is he anyway? Is he still mad that you shot him?"

"Drusilla said he'd be there." Xander said.

Angelus nodded. "If Dru said so, he'll be there." He pointed to two minions who were looking especially vacant tonight. But they still followed directions easily enough, and with less complaining than normal. He had them carry the nearly catatonic vampiress to the church. Soon enough, she would be well and Spike would be gone. And that was the last time he let her pick the man she wanted to turn.

* * *

Spike had never been what you'd call brave. Even though he loved a good brawl, he tended to be the first to run at the sign of true danger. Incongruent facts that allowed him to kill two Slayers and still lead a long unlife. On the other hand, he had always believed in true love since before he'd died, and now he was willing to put it all on the line for her. For Drusilla. He took a deep breath he didn't need and walked in the front door of what he was pretty sure was a trap that might just end his unlife.

* * *

"Well, here we are. The Canon Church." Giles said as everyone piled out of his car. It was about five minutes to Midnight.

"I don't see any cannons." Buffy complained. "Too bad. Those would have been handy for stopping this ceremony."

"You can borrow one of my cannons." Cordelia offered. She'd gone down to the gun range last night and found she wasn't nearly as good a shot as Xander was in his memories. At best she'd be a distraction; at worst, she might hit one of her friends. She was bringing the Beretta, but it was staying holstered unless she had a clear shot at a vamp running away or right on top of her. Her main weapon was going to be a stake.

"Why don't I take that? Thank you." Giles took the gun. "Seeing as I've seen both of you shoot. And that's 'canon' with one 'en', Buffy. It means the body of laws and regulations made by an ecclesiastical authority. It can also be material that is considered to be genuine by a fan base. But I don't think that situation applies here, as we are not characters in a book." Giles explained. "Right. Are we all ready?" He looked around at all his children. Kendra had healed at a rate similar to Buffy's and was now nearly 100%. Though she claimed this was faster than she usually healed. He wondered if the Hellmouth's energies had anything to do with that. He wished Jenny were here if only for another adult presence but she was still working on re-cursing Angel.

"Ready" Willow said. She hefted a large bucket of glue for dealing with the bug-guy-assassin-thing. Apparently he could only be killed in his disassembled form. So she was going to lure him under a door and straight into a puddle of glue where she would stop him to death.

Giles made one more weapons check. "Very well then. On we go."

* * *

"Hello, Princess. You're looking especially beautiful tonight." Spike said, honestly. She had dressed up for the occasion in her best black dress. Though she certainly looked sick again. He wondered what caused it and if this ritual was really likely to cure her.

"My Spike." Drusilla's head lolled to the side as if she were slightly drunk.

"Get him." Angelus ordered and two minions came straight for him.

Spike fought back against himself and his very nature so that he didn't fight back against these tools. They tied him to one of Dru's hands. Strangely, they tied only one of his hands to Dru's left hand even though her right hand was also trussed up on the other side of her. But he put thoughts of why that might be out of his mind. The cavalry would be here soon and he needed to be in shape to strike then. He started to think he should have struggled a bit when Angelus started the ceremony and the Slayer's gang hadn't arrived yet. Holding the golden cross of Du Lac upside down Angelus chanted. "Eligor. I name thee. Bringer of war, poisoners, pariahs, grand obscenity."

Dru looked at him. "Black medicine my Spike. Soon we'll be together... forever." she took his hand in hers and entwined their fingers.

Angelus stopped chanting and pulled a dagger from the base of the cross. "She has given of her unlife to her childe and from that childe shall she be born anew." and he stabbed the knife through their entwined hands.

The light and the pain blinded Spike to anything that might be left in the world.

"Well, that felt almost too easy. What do you think, Harris?" Angelus asked. He turned and noticed Xander going for something behind him. "What are you doing there, Harris?" he asked suspiciously.

Xander casually lit a cigarette he'd been taking from his coat by the back wall. "Me? I wasn't doing anything." he smirked and blew a line of smoke. "It's those two you should be worried about."

Angelus had only a moment before one of the minions Drusilla had hypnotized bashed him over the head with a crowbar. The minions then dropped their weapons and began to tie the dazed vampire to Drusilla's other hand. As they were doing that, Xander pulled a knife and something else from his jacket. He slipped the knife into the hole left in the Du Lac cross. Once they were done tying Angelus up, he handed the cross to one of the minions. Which it promptly burned.

"You're supposed to wear gloves, moron." Xander said derisively as both minions went to get their gloves. Xander pulled out the stake he'd been hiding and dusted Angelus.

"NOOO!" Screamed Drusilla as she pulled on her bonds to try to kill him. But the bonds were designed to restrain two vampires, so they held steady.

Xander smirked back at her. "I'm not sure what you were planning. But I'm pretty sure it had something to do with me and that you needed both of them to pull it off. Now, I _was_ going to let you have Spike; but if your minions keep looking at me like that, I'm just going to dust you all and say 'the hell with it'." he pulled his silenced gun and leveled it at the head of the nearest advancing minion.

Dru visibly calmed herself and the minions stopped advancing.

"That's a good pet." Xander put away his gun.

"My Kitten. Why?" Dru mewed. She searched her memory for any sign from the stars that Kitten might betray her.

"When you've got a Tiger by the tail, you'd better have a plan for dealing with his teeth." Xander quoted pithily.

Xander took back the Du Lac cross and sat down in a pew to watch Spike die. He hefted the cross and decided that it was worth at least $150,000 for the gold alone, never mind the cultural value. He shook his head at the thought of Giles offering him a mere $1,000. Whatever. He was done with that group. Too bad that group wasn't done with him.

Buffy and Kendra's joint kicking down of the door was both loud and impressive. They were followed by Cordelia and then the rest.

"Slayer!" Dru said from her tied up position. "Kill Alexander. He killed our Angel."

Xander took a last drag of his cigarette and flicked it into a corner. "Technically, I killed Angelus. You were the one who knocked off Angel by getting groiny with the beast." Xander sneered.

Buffy stopped and paled.

"What? You didn't think Angelus would share that bit of info with me? When he could shove it in my face that he got there first? Not likely." Xander spat. Most of the Scoobies were now looking at Buffy who looked even smaller than she normally did.

Kendra looked confused at first and then looked more mortified than anyone. "A vampire!?"

"Hey now." Xander interrupted. "I'm not cheesed that she slept with a vampire, even the corpse kind. I'm just peeved that it was with a tool like Angel. I mean, I had hoped you would come to your senses, Buff and see that he wasn't worthy of you."

There was an 'eep' from Willow in the back still holding the glue as she realized the meaning behind the innuendo. "Um... where's that bug-guy?" she asked to cover her slip.

Xander waved to where Dru and Spike still hung from the ceiling. "Dru decided that she had me and didn't need him any more. So we had a bug barbeque. It was fun. A bit smelly."

Spike pulled his strength together to object to that. "Hey! I paid a lot of money for that guy!" it still didn't come out very loud, most of his strength already being gone. Xander didn't think that Willow at the back of the church had heard what Spike said.

Buffy recovered herself by focusing on the fact that they still had vampires to kill and a friend to save. Because it wasn't Xander saying those hurtful things. It was the evil inside of him.

"So, we going to dance?" Xander taunted.

The Slayers each went a different way. Xander pulled his FiveSeven and leveled it at Kendra who then went crosswise from his position. It wasn't about who was the bigger threat. It was about getting her out of the way so he could take his time with Buffy and still make sure that Drusilla was still able to suck all the mystical power out of Spike.

But hitting a moving Slayer with a pistol is never an easy task. Especially with a second Slayer bearing straight down on you. He got off only two shots that didn't hit jack before Buffy was in hand-to-hand range. He didn't bother trying to put the gun away, instead he simply moved his hands out of the way and let Buffy knock the gun out of the air without hitting him. He jumped back and used a foot to kick the crowbar the minions had used on Angelus to his hands.

Buffy paused at that. "Did you really kill Angel?" she just had to ask.

Xander smiled. Best to give her a reason to go all out against him otherwise she'd just hold back. "Yes."

Buffy's mouth narrowed and tightened as she strengthened her resolve.

By now both the Slayers were together again and started advancing, driving him away from the altar. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one minion going after Cordy, Giles, and Willow as the second played guard dog to Dru and growled at the approaching Slayers. Kendra picked up a discarded 2X4. She swung it at him, while Buffy turned and attacked the guard dog, trying to take him by surprise. Kendra swung high and he leaned back returning the favor with a jab from the crowbar to her middle she stuck out her butt to keep it out of range. She countered with an overhead blow he caught on the crowbar. He swung chest-high with the small, sharpened end towards her. She caught that on her board. Or rather, _in_ her board as the bar drove through the wood and got stuck. And then Xander realized his mistake.

Kendra threw the board and bar to the back of the church, leaving them both unarmed, which was to Kendra's advantage.

Xander spared a glance around him to see if any weapons were nearby. He noted that Buffy had dusted her opponent and was about to dust Spike. He also noted that Cordelia was nowhere to be seen, Giles' crossbow had missed, and though he was trying to reload quickly, Willow was about to be vamp food. He cried out, "Willow!" to distract Buffy from killing Spike for another minute.

Sure enough, Buffy didn't stake Spike, instead she went to rescue her friend. But the distraction had cost Xander. He receive a full-force Slayer punch to the face from Kendra for his trouble and was tossed several feet back into the wall.

_Lycans didn't hit this hard. I'd rather be fighting them._

He received several more body blows before he was able to leverage his way away from the wall and throw her into it for a change. But it didn't even faze her. _She was like a fricken machine._ He endured blow after blow while his own returned blows didn't seem to have any effect. He couldn't spare a thought for Spike and Dru but only knew out of the corner of his eye that thew were both still there.

Then he fell on the table holding the still smoking censer. He spun with it and struck Kendra in the head. With her stunned, he was finally able to get a hold of a weapon. Taking a page out of her book, he tore a leg off the table. By the time he turned back around, she'd recovered, but it didn't matter as he was now armed and she wasn't. And this time there was no Mr. Nice Guy to save her. He treated her to her own rain of blows that finally looked like they were doing some damage. Another crack over the head put her down again. Perhaps permanently this time, but there would be time to finish her later. Now he finally had time enough for him to assess the situation again.

The last guard was gone but Spike and Dru were still alive as well. The Scoobies were in the back part of the church for some reason.

Xander took his table leg and went to investigate.

It was pretty clear what had happened with Giles apologizing and Buffy sitting in a pile of ashes with a crossbow bolt in her shoulder.

"Well now. This is kind of a disappointing final showdown." Xander hefted his table leg on his shoulder like a baseball bat.

Giles' eyes shot up to him and then to the still form of Kendra. "Shit." the librarian swore. "If you really want that grand showdown, Xander, you'll have to let us go so Buffy can get well." he offered.

Tsk. "Nice try watcher. Now who wants to be first?"

Willow stood up and walked calmly to him. "There's no need for that, Xander." Willow said.

"That was the problem with Spike and Dru. Buff never finished them off and they just kept coming back." Xander said. "I'm not going to make that mistake."

"I meant you don't need the table leg with me." she said. "You don't need to force me to do anything. Just ask. If you want to turn me or drain me, I'm yours."

"Then you're weak." Xander spat.

"Perhaps. But all my life, I've known that there's only one man I would ever love. All he had to do was say... anything and I would be his for the taking. Do you remember the first day of kindergarten? I broke the yellow crayon and you told the teacher you broke it? You took a time-out for me when you said that you did it on purpose. I still have that crayon in my desk at home. To remind me of you. Because I was weak and you were strong. And now you have to be strong one more time, Xander. Strong for me. Come back to me Xander, or take me with you." Willow was bawling by the time she was done with her speech and even Giles had tears on his cheeks.

She stepped up until they were touching. "So if this is who Xander Harris is now, then bite me." she whispered. She stepped closer and put the nape of her neck right under his mouth. "Because I don't want to live in a world where Xander Harris lost himself. I love you."

"Lost my way?" Xander turned her head so she was looking into his ice-blue eyes. "No. Just had my eyes opened."

"Giles said you took in too much evil. It's not you Xander. You have to fight against it." Willow pleaded.

"There's no demon inside of me. I did all of it. Me!" Xander's head twitched at the memories.

"Come back to me, Xander." Willow pulled their foreheads together as they used to do.

"I don't think I can come back Will. I killed my parents. I killed Kendra." He paused for a moment. "It hurts, Wills." Xander admitted.

"I know you're in pain. I can't imagine the pain you're in. I knew something was up at your house. I should have done something to stop it." Willow said. "I still love you."

"You can't. No one can." Xander objected.

"I love you."

"Stop it."

Instead of speaking, Willow just pulled Xander into a hug, which ended in them both crying on their knees.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry..." Xander cried.

In all the confusion, no one noticed that Spike had turned to a pile of dust next to Dru who was now trying to free herself. She had been expecting to have minions to free her. Cordelia picked herself up from where she'd been knocked out by the vampire, took stock of the situation, then calmly walked over to Drusilla and staked her.

* * *

Epilogue:

Though the doors and windows were all closed, the candle flames in the church fluttered in the wind. Dust swirled on the altar. A vampiress, beautiful even in her game face, stood naked thereon when there had been no one in the room a moment before.

"Naughty tigers who bite their mistresses get turned into beautiful throw rugs." she said.

* * *

A/N: Thank you to all those who Rec'd and reviewed, especially those who did so early. This was originally going to be a 3 part, 1-shot until your feedback convinced me to continue it. Chapter 4 and much of the Reverse-yellow-crayon scene was written in about 2 hours and the chapter posted not long after that. Once I had that, most of the rest just seemed to flow. Mostly.

Anyway, I'll be presumptuous and tell you straight off that I have no plans for the sequel at the moment. However, if you think you know where this goes from here; by all means, you have my permission to write a sequel. All I ask is credit.


End file.
